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ECLECTIC SCHOOL READINGS 



TWO GIRLS IN CHINA 



BY 



MARY H. KROUT 



AUTHOR OF '' HAWAII AND A REVOLUTION/' '' ALICE'S 

VISIT TO THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS/' '' A 

LOOKER-ON IN LONDON/' ETC. 



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NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO 
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 



THE LIBRARY ©F 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

MAR 18 1903 

Copyright Entry 
CLASS Ou XXC. No. 

^ f 2> -x- 

COPY 8. 



Copyright. 1903, by 
MARY H. KROUT. 

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 

TWO GIRLS IN CHINA. 
W. P. I 



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PREFACE 

The material for this book was obtained by the writer 
during some months of travel in China in 1899-1900, pre- 
ceding the Boxer rebellion and the disorganization of the 
Imperial Government. Peking and the adjacent provinces 
were visited, and the utm.ost pains taken to observe and 
record such facts as might prove interesting to young read- 
ers, such as the geographical features of the country, its 
products, the occupations and customs of the people, etc. 

Almost three months were spent in the capital ; and from 
this point journeys were made to the Ming Tombs, the 
Nan K'ou Pass, and across Pechili almost to the Alongolian 
frontier. In the latter expedition the writer was accom- 
panied by a missionary, an American lady who spoke Chinese 
fluently, and through whose assistance, as interpreter, an 
insight into national characteristics was obtained which 
would not have been otherwise practicable. 

In addition to this, the story of the Great Bell is con- 
densed from the version given by Lafcadio Hearn in '' Some 
Chinese Ghosts,'' a delightful book, now, unfortunately, out 
of print. Other books of reference which were consulted 

5 



are '' Through the Yang-tze Gorges '' and " Mt. Omi and 
Beyond/' by Archibald Little; ''Intimate China/' by Mrs. 
Archibald Little /' '' Chinese Characteristics '' and '' Village 
Life in China/' by the Rev. Arthur Smith; ''China: the 
Long-lived Empire/' by Eliza R. Scidmore ; "A Cycle of 
Cathay/' by the Rev. W. A. P. Martin, etc., etc. 

M. H. K. 



CONTENTS 

I. The Voyage 9 

11. In Japan . 25 

III. Southward Bound 35 

IV. In and Around Shanghai 45 

V. A House Boat Journey 52 

VI. MoDo .61 

VII. SucHAu 70 

VIII- North to Taku J7 

IX. A Chinese Railroad ..» ....... 85 

X. Peking 94 

XI. In and Around Peking 103 

XII. Chinese Girls 112 

XIII. On the Walls of Peking 122 

7 



8 

XIV. The Ming Tombs 133 

XV. The Nan K'ou Pass 145 

XVI. The School 154 

XVII. A Feast 163 

XVIII. Hongkong 174 

XIX. Canton 182 

XX. The Yangtze and the Tea Country .... 194 

XXL Conclusion 203 



TWO GIRLS IN CHINA 



I. THE VOYAGE 

ELLEN and Mary Spencer had lived all their lives in. 
New York. In the summer they went to the moun- 
tains or to the seashore, and they had once visited Niagara 
Falls. But they had never made a long journey, nor 
crossed the ocean. They had a pleasant home and kind 
parents, who took a deep interest in all their work and 
pleasure. They were sent to school, and studied well, 
and both were fond of reading. In this way, while they 
had seen but little of the great world, its interesting coun- 
tries and strange cities, they knew more than many young 
people. Ellen was ten years old, and Mary was thirteen. 

Their father was a civil engineer, that is, a man who 
plans and lays out roads, canals or railway lines. Mr. 
Spencer came home one day and said that he had been asked 
to go out to China for a company that was building a 
railroad in the northern provinces. A province in China 
corresponds somewhat to a state in this country. 

Mr. Spencer did not know what to do; he did not want 
to give up his comfortable home, where they had lived so 
long. They could not take with them their books, and 
pictures and the pretty furniture that had been chosen with 

9 



lO 



such care. Mrs. Spencer, also, did not wish to take the Httle 
girls out of the school where they were making such good 
progress. It was a hard matter to decide ; there was a great 
deal to be said on both sides. It was even thought that 
Ellen and Mary might be left with friends who would take 
good care of them. But to this plan both children were 
much opposed. They would be very unhappy if they were 
separated from their mother, who had seldom left them. 
Then they wished to travel; to make the long journey by 
rail across the states and territories, and the voyage by 
ship across the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Spencer finally said 
that he thought they could learn as much by such a journey, 
if they observed carefully what they saw, as they could 
by remaining at school. They would be sent to school again, 
of course, when they were settled in their new home in 
Shanghai. 

They felt sad when they saw their pretty house all dis- 
mantled, and said good-by to their friends. At the same 
time, they were interested and excited in the prospect before 
them. " We shall have real adventures," said Ellen, who 
was very brave and fearless, and who had been a leader 
in all the games, although the younger of the two. Mary 
was more timid, and cared less for what Ellen called ''adven- 
tures.'' She wondered, however, if she could ever like the 
Chinese, and she asked her mother a great many qustions 
as to how they lived, what they ate, and what they wore. 
'*' You have read about them," said Mrs. Spencer, '' and now 
you must wait and see them for yourself. Were I to tell you 
too much, you might be disappointed." 

Mary was satisfied with this answer, but she said that she 
knew she would never be able to use the chopsticks with 



II 



which the Chinese ate their food ; and she was very doubtful 
if she could eat the food at all. She did not like tea, and 
she was always sorry when they had rice at home, which 
she was too polite to refuse; and these, she knew, were the 
food and drink of millions of the strange, yellow people 
amongst whom she was to live. But there were far worse 
things than these; in one book she had seen a picture of a 
Chinese coolie, or workingman, carrying upon his shoulders 
a long bamboo pole, upon which were strung rats, large and 
small, which people bought, cooked and ate. As she looked 
at this picture, she thought that she would not like to live in 
a land where rats w^ere used as food. She supposed that 
they were eaten by everybody ; but she was to learn, in time, 
that this is not true. 

They left New York in tlie evening from the Grand 
Central Station. As they watched the lighted streets that 
seemed to race past the window, they realized the long 
journey before them — the miles of land and leagues of. 
ocean which they must cross before they could sight the 
shores of China. The afternoon of the second day they 
reached Chicago, a big, noisy, smoky city, where people 
hurried to and fro, and where the tall buildings, which 
seemed to touch the sky, made the streets very dark. 

They rested in the hotel, and in the evening continued 
the journey to St. Paul, where they spent the following 
day. Then again in the evening the train moved slowly 
out of the railway station, crossing the great bridge that 
spans the Mississippi, and halting for a moment at the 
station in Minneapolis, then moving on again into the night, 
westward across Dakota and Montana, over plains, moun- 
tains and rivers, skirting the shores of lovely little lakes 



12 



which were ahve with wild ducks and geese. There were 
many pretty villages and towns, and in Dakota they saw 
miles of wheat fields and grassy pasture lands, in which 
thousands of fat cattle and horses were grazing. 

At one station in Montana, among the mountains, hun- 
dreds of Indians were waiting. Their faces were painted, 
and in their hair they wore bright feathers, and strands of 




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Wheat Fields of Dakota 



beads around their necks ; many of them were riding shaggy 
little ponies. Mr. Spencer said that there was an Indian 
reservation at this place, that is, land which had been set 
apart for the Indians, which could not be sold and where 
they could live in peace. These Indians were all Catholics, 
and they were waiting at the station to meet two priests 
who had come to visit them. As the priests stepped upon 



^3 



the platform the girls saw the Indians gather about and 
welcome them, as if they were very glad indeed to see 
them. 

At one place in the mountains, which were high and 
rugged, the train ran along the face of the cliffs, and not 
far away was the great Yellowstone Park, a public pleasure 
ground belonging to our government. 

They enjoyed the railway journey very much, for the cars 
were roomy and comfortable, the food was good, and they 
were always glad when it was time to go into the bright, 




Rocky Mountain Scenery 

pleasant dining car. At night they slept as soundly in their 
soft, white berths as they ever had in their little beds at 
home. The road was called the Northern Pacific, and they 
knew that there were other railroads farther to the north, 
and still others to the south, that crossed the Western plains, 
deserts and mountains to the Pacific Ocean. In Washing- 
ton and Oregon they saw many hop fields, which they 
thought must be like the hop fields of Kent, in England. 
At Portland, Oregon, they left the train in which they 
had spent four days and nights, and took another road south 
to San Francisco. They were glad w^hen at last they reached 
the ferry at Oakland, and were steaming across the bay to 
the city, where they were to wait until the ship was ready 



14 



to sail to China. The time passed very quickly ; they went 
out often to ride in the street cars which ran up and down 
the steep hills. They were taken to the Cliff House to see 
the seals basking and barking in the spray upon the rocks 
out in the sea, where no one is allowed to molest them. 
The day for sailing came, and they drove down to the 
dock and went on board. There was a great deal of hurry 
and bustle, and the decks were crowded with people — those 




Seal Rocks, San Francisco 



v/ho were about to set out upon the long voyage, and the 
friends who had come to bid them good-by. The big steam- 
ship was painted pure white, and her decks had been scoured 
and all the brass work rubbed until she was as clean as a 
ship could be. She had a very strange name, the Hong 
Kong Maru, and they learned that she was a new Japanese 
ship, and that Maru was a Japanese word meaning a 



15 



vessel that moves through the water. The chief officers 
were EngUsh or Americans, but the petty officers were all 
Japanese — handsome young men in white uniforms and 
caps trimmed with gold lace. 

The servants were Chinese, the first Chinese that Mary 
and Ellen had seen, except the few that they had noticed 
walking about the streets in New York or San Francisco. On 
board the ship the Chinese wore long gowns of blue linen 
reaching to their feet. Their silky, black hair was smoothly 
brushed and braided in a long queue which hung down 
the back. The queue had been lengthened by means of 
black silk cords ending in little tassels ; the front of the 
head was shaved smooth. The children learned afterward 
that it is very ill-bred for a Chinese to wear the queue wound 
about the head, and no Chinese will do so unless he wishes 
to be rude to his employer. Those that w^ork out-of-doors 
can tie up the queue and cover the head with a cloth or 
towel to protect the hair from the dust. 

Their cabins were large and comfortable. They came on 
board in good time and arranged everything that it might 
be ready when ,they were finally out at sea. The toilette 
things were put in the racks; the shoe bags hung up, the 
rugs and cushions taken out, and the steamer trunks, with the 
clothing they would need on the voyage, were slipped under 
the berths ; for the other trunks were lowered deep down 
into the hold, and they would not see them again until they 
left the ship at the Wusung bar, just before they 'reached 
Shanghai. They also put their books where they could 
get them easily, and were then ready to go on deck. There 
were plenty of comfortable wicker chairs which no one 
had to pay for, as one must pay for them on the ships that 



i6 



cross the Atlantic Mr Spencer, however, had bought 
c::c es;_ecialiy for their i::::. -r — a long, low bamboo chair 
with a high back and arms that were like little baskets 
in which she could put her book, or her sewing. It was 
like a comfortable lounge, and they saw a great many 
of these lounge chairs when they reached China, where 
they are made by the native- The saloon was beautifully 
fumished, and there were panels of fine embroider}' set 
all around it, which had been made in Japan. 

At last the gcrg s: ' a Chinese steward walking up 

and down the decks beating it with all his might. This 
was to warn those who had come on board to bid their friends 
good-by that the gang plank was about to be raised, and 
that all \'isitors must go ashore. 

For a little while the confusion was greater than ever: 
there were many last words to be spoken, and people shed 
tears as the\' parted. All realized that the voyage would 
be long, and that those who were about to separate might 
never meet again. 

When the last visitor passed down and stepped upon 
the dock the hea^-A- plank was drawn up, fastened securely 
to the ship's side, not to be lowered again until they reached 
Honolulu. Then there was a long, hoarse whistle, and one 
sharp, sudden clang of the bell. High on the bridge stood 
the captain, with the pilot directing the ship's course, sig- 
naling to the engineer in the engine room far below. The 
great ship moved slowly from the dock, the space widening 
and widening, until they could no longer see the features of 
the people on the pier, only an indistinct mass of faces 
and waving handkerchiefs that soon became the tiniest white 
specks. 



17 



-Both Mary and Ellen had often seen pictures of the Bay 
of San Francisco, and the narrow opening into the ocean 
which is called the Golden Gate. But it was far more beau- 
tiful than any picture, with its green, rocky islands and 
the tall peak of ]\It. Tamalpais, which seemed almost to 
touch the clouds. 

A little boy stood looking through the railing around the 
decks, as the ship moved slowly through the water. 




The Golden Gate 

''What do you see?'' Ellen asked him. 

" I am waiting to see the Golden Gate,'' he replied. 

" That is the Golden Gate," she explained, pointing out the 
two headlands. 

His face clouded over, and he said with much disappoint- 
ment: ''That? I thought they were gates of real gold." 
He was very little, and had never been taught, and he was 
not in the least pleased to know that the headlands were 
so named from the bright, yellow poppies, which, in the 
spring, cover the two cliffs from the top to the water's edge. 

KROUT's CHINA — 2 



i8 



The ocean proved to be very smooth, although the Pacific 
does not always deserve its name. There are often terrible 
storms, and in the long swell that lasts for several days 
after a storm the ship rolls and pitches, so that it is not 
safe to walk about, and all this time the sky is blue and 
the sun shining. 

In a little while they began to enjoy the life on shipboard, 
for neither Mary nor Ellen was in the least seasick. They 
were ready for the cold, salt-water baths when they woke 
in the morning, and they had keen appetites for the toast 
and the hot cofifee and oranges that were brought to them 

afterward. There was 
time for a good walk 
or a game of bull-board 
on deck before breakfast 
at half-past eight. They 
^^^^^?r^^.^ ^^S2^^^?^^^^^F"had never seen anything 
^^^^^^-_y^^^^^^^^=^:^~^ so blue as the water, 

Flying Fish which was very diflfer- 

ent from the gray Atlantic, and there was much more 
life. Flocks of brown sea birds followed them, circling 
round and round the ship, fighting for the remnants of food 
which the cook threw overboard, or resting on the waves 
which rocked them like a cradle. As the ship sailed south- 
east toward the Hawaiian Islands, it grew much warmer; 
they saw shoals of flying fish, like flocks of snow-white birds. 
They leaped from the water, and moved rapidly, often for 
a long distance, then dropped back again. They had a sad 
life, between the hungry fish that pursued them under the 
waves and the gulls that pounced down upon them when they 
rose into the air. One morning when the girls came on deck, 




19 



as usual, the sea was like glass ; there was not a ripple, and 
it was studded, as far as the eye could see, with strange, 
delicate things that they knew must be Portuguese men-of- 
war, living creatures that float on the water with a mimic 
sail. There were thousands of them, and they were about 
the ship all day. As they approached the tropics there were 
sudden showers and splendid rainbows, and the air grew 
softer and the sunshine brighter. The nights, too, changed ; 




Diamond Head 



they had never seen the stars so large and brilliant or so 
close above their heads. 

The first of the Hawaiian Islands that they saw was 
Molokai, a low, gray coast like a cloud along the edge of 
the horizon; then the bare, brown peaks of Oahu, Koko 
Head and Diamond Head. They were surprised to see 
the harbor of Honolulu crowded with ships. The first 
pilot had left them after he had taken them through the 



20 



Golden Gate, and now a rope ladder was let down over 
the ship's side, that a new pilot might come on board. His 
boat was rowed by dark-skinned Hawaiians, who wore 
wreathes of flowers around their straw hats and laughed 
and chattered in their soft, musical language. 

The pilot was a big, good-natured man, and shook hands 
with the captain and asked what sort of a voyage he had 
had. Other men also came on board before the passengers 
were allowed to land. These w^ere the customhouse officers, 
and the health officers. The customhouse officers were sent 
to see that no one smuggled ashore articles for which they 
were required to pay a tax, called " duty/' and which had 
to be examined and the duty paid on the deck. It was the 
business of the health officers to see that there was no 
contagious disease, like smallpox 'or plague, among the 
passengers. Had there been, the ship would not have been 
allowed to come into the harbor, and the people obliged 
to go ashore would have been sent first to an island, called 
the Quarantine Station, until it was certain that they would 
not be ill, or until they were well, if they had the disease. 
This is done, ^Ir. Spencer said, in civilized countries all 
over the world to keep disease from spreading. 

All on board were well, so they were not detained. Those 
who were to leave the ship to remain in the Islands for 
awhile, and go on from there to Samoa, Xew Zealand or 
Australia in another ship, had their baggage taken off to 
the dock, where it was opened and examined by other 
customhouse officers, called inspectors. 

Ellen thought that it was very disagreeable to have one's 
trunks and bags opened, bvit she noticed that nothing was 
disturbed, and that the trunks were quickly closed and 



21 



marked with chalk to show that they had been inspected 
and could now be taken away. The dock was covered with 
a low roof, but open at either end, and heavy gates shut 
it off from the street ; no luggage that had not been marked 
by the men who examined it could be taken through this 
gate. The dock was crowded with people watching the 
passengers land; many were expecting friends whom they 
were very glad to see. The Hawaiians talked and laughed 
a great deal. Both men and women were dark-eyed and 




Hawaiian Girls 

dark-skinned, and, like the men that they had seen rowing 
the pilot's boat, all wore wreaths of fragrant flowers around 
their hats and throats. The women wore loose, flowing 
gowns, called holokiis, white, blue or pink, which suited 
them well. 

Ellen and Mary were delighted with everything, for it 
was their first sight of a foreign country. The air was 
fragrant with flowers ; the palms waved softly in the pleasant 



22 



wind, and there were countless trees and shrubs, brilliant 
pink, purple and yellow blossoming vines, which they had 
never seen before. 

Air. Spencer had decided not to stay on board the ship 
that night, as they would be taking on coal; and, although 
all the doors and small, round windows, called portholes, 
would be tightly closed, yet the dust would sift in, and 
the noise of the men at work would keep one from sleeping. 
So they went to the hotel. As they drove through the 
narrow, crooked streets they were surprised to see so many 
handsome shops, quite like those at home, where one could 
buy almost anything one needed. The houses were com- 
fortable and attractive, with their wide verandas and shady 
grounds filled with ferns and palms. 

That evening there was a concert on the lawn at the 
hotel, to which a great many people came. The musicians 
were Hawaiian boys, dressed in suits of white duck, all 
wearing wreaths or leis; they played and sang Hawaiian 
airs, which were very sweet and sad. 

After breakfast the next morning the Spencers went for 
a long drive to Waikiki, a beautiful beach, where the 
sea came rolling in, tossing its white surf high in air. 

The Hawaiians were bathings and rowing about in narrow 
canoes with a curved framework at one side which kept the 
boat from upsetting. Others were riding upon long surf- 
boards, painted at one end, which they take far out beyond 
the breakers and there wait until they can catch a rushing 
wave that carries them swiftly to the shore. The Hawaiians, 
their father told the girls, spend a great part of their lives 
in the water, and even children dive and swim like fish. 

They came back through Kapiolani Park, which was 



23 



named for the wife of the last Hawaiian king. There was 
still time to drive up to the Pali, a steep cleft in the moun- 
tain, which is reached by a good road. From the Pali, 
around which thick white clouds were floating, they saw the 
city, which lay like a tropical garden far below, the ships 
in the harbor, and a fringe of white surf beating against 




Swimming with Boards 

the reef, with the blue sea stretching on and on, to where 
it seemed to meet the sky. 

They would have liked to stay longer in Honolulu, but 
the Hong Kong Maru was to sail at noon; they had paid 
for their passage, and Mr. Spencer was anxious to reach 
Shanghai. 

They saw Diamond Head fade in the distance, and in a 
little while sighted Kauai, another of the Islands, which is 



24 



so green and fertile that the Hawaiians call it the " Garden 
Island/' Then they saw no more land until they sighted the 
shores of Japan, which are rugged and steep like those 
of Hawaii. 

The time passed very quickly, although it was two weeks 
before they reached Yokohama, which was the next port at 
which they touched. 

At Honolulu many Japanese came on board who had been 
working on the large sugar plantations in the Islands. They 
stayed on the lower deck and slept in a part of the ship 
which Mr. Spencer called '' the native steerage," which 
no white people were expected to share. 

Mary and Ellen were very much interested in the Jap- 
anese. When the sun shone they came out upon their own 
deck, the men wrapped in scarlet blankets and smoking tiny 
pipes. The women also smoked ; a few of them sewed, and 
both men and women took care of the children, who, with 
their shaved heads, bright eyes and gay dresses were like 
pretty little dolls. The children seldom cried or quar- 
reled, but played with their parents, or with each other, like 
kittens. The Japanese ate a great deal of rice, and drank 
hot tea at all hours of the day. One man had been ill when 
he came on board at Honolulu. He was going home so 
that he might die in his own country, and among his family. 
But he grew worse and worse, and one morning when the 
ship's doctor came to breakfast he told Mr. Spencer that 
the poor fellow had died during the night. 

When people die on shipboard the body is either taken to 
the nearest port and sent back home, or buried at sea. The 
Japanese was to be buried at sea, and the body was sewed 
up in a shroud of clean, new sailcloth by two sailors. 



25 



It was a dark, stormy day, with a roaring wind and a 
rough sea. At four o'clock the engines stopped, which made 
the ship seem very still after the steady throbbing that had 
never ceased a moment since they left Honolulu. The ship's 
bell tolled sadly, and all the passengers came out on the 
upper deck, from which they could look down upon the lower 
deck, where a plank had been placed along the ship's side. 
The body of the Japanese was laid upon the plank, and 
covered with an American flag. All the officers, in full 
uniform, stood near, and the captain, with his gray head 
bared, read the burial service. At the last word the flag 
was lifted, and plank was tilted, and the body slipped over 
the ship's side into the sea. Then the ship sailed on her 
way. Mary and Ellen were both sad, and for a long 
time they could not forget the poor Japanese whose family 
was waiting for him in his own country and who would 
never see him again. 



11. IN JAPAN 

HT X rE shall reach Yokohama to-morrow evening," said 
V V Mr. Spencer one Monday evening two weeks after 
they had left Honolulu. 

Mary and Ellen could not realize that they had reached 
Japan. In spite of all that they had read about the country, 
it had been little more to them than a few scattered islands 
lying close to the shores of Asia. But now they were to 
see for themselves that it was a country with fields and 
woods, rivers and mountains, villages, towns and cities. 



26 



When they went on deck in the morning it was rather 
uncomfortable. The wicker chairs had been collected and 
piled in heaps, or pushed aside to make room, and everybody 
was too much interested in watching their entrance into the 
harbor to take much notice of the little girls, as they usually 
did. It was colder than it had been in mid-ocean, and a 
dull mist covered the sky, through which the sun shone like 




Native Boats 

a red ball. Mrs. Spencer was wrapped in a thick cloak, and 
both Ellen and Mary had put on their warm serge gowns 
and cloth jackets. 

Presently the mist cleared away, but even then the sky 
seemed much dimmer and less blue than at home. Low 
pine trees, gnarled and bent, grew upon the rocky coast, 



V 



and the broad bay was dotted in every direction with queer 
Httle boats, with square sails of matting ; they were the sam- 
pans or native boats of the fishermen. The Japanese eat 
a great deal of fish with their rice, and they also dry it in 
large quantities and send it to the Hawaiian Islands and 
other countries where Japanese working people are em- 
ployed. 

While Yokohama is a large city, with thousands of in- 
habitants, not much of the city can be seen from the bay. 
Most of the houses are of but one story, except the hotels 
and public buildings and those in which foreigners live, by 
which the Japanese mean people from Europe and the United 
States. There is no dock, as at San Francisco and Hono- 
lulu, and great numbers of sampans and several steam 
launches came out to the ship to take the passengers ashore. 
The ship was to remain until the next day to discharge 
her cargo for Yokohama and take on more which was 
to be sent to other merchants in Shanghai and Hongkong, 
or left at the Japanese ports of Kobe and Nagasaki. 

As in Honolulu, they had again taken on board a pilot 
who was to guide the ship to her anchorage, which the 
captain is rarely ever allowed to do. A little later the health 
officers also came on, and no one could land, and no one 
could come up the gangway from the launches until the pas- 
sengers had been inspected. The health officers were small, 
dark men in white uiforms trimmed with gold lace, and 
they wore small swords. Upon their caps were gold coro- 
nets and letters, showing that they were officers of His 
Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan. The American 
inspectors in San Francisco had worn dark-blue suits with 
brass buttons, and the three letters '' U. S. /V." on their caps. 



28 



Mr. Spencer told Mary and Ellen that the first foreign 
ships that were freely allowed to enter Japanese ports were 
American ships. They had been sent out to Japan under 
the brave officer Commodore Perry, about fifty years ago, 
to induce the Emperor to promise that sailors shipwrecked 
on the Japanese coast should be kindly treated and allowed 
to go back to their own country when ships came to take 
them away. The Emperor finally granted Perry's request, 
and the sailors of all other countries were benefited by this 
decision. '' I am glad to say," their father added, '' that the 
United States has never done anything to make the Jap- 
anese regret that they finally accepted us as friends. At 
first it was agreed that no Japanese subjects should ever 
be allowed to go to the United States in the wonderful 
foreign ships ; now there are hundreds in our country. 
Young men have come here to work, and there are many 
studying in our schools and colleges. Others have shops 
in our cities, and there are even a few Japanese girls, who 
are also studying in our schools. The Japanese to-day have 
ships of their own ; steamers like this, and great warships 
for defense against their enemies, much larger and better 
than those that they thought so wonderful when Commodore 
Perry visited them. They have become strong and pros- 
perous, and have railroads, as well as steamships, and all 
this has been done within fifty years. There are many 
people, however,'' he said, '' who knew the Japanese twenty- 
five years ago, and liked them better then than now. They 
have learned a good many things from the foreigners, as 
they call Europeans and Americans, that it would have been 
much better for them not to know." 

When the health officers learned that a man had died 



29 



on board they were very anxious, and examined all the pas- 
sengers carefully. This took several hours, and the captaiij 
was much vexed at the delay. 

When it was over, and they had had their breakfast, Mr. 
and Mrs. Spencer and the two girls went in one of the 
launches and were taken to the quay. A great many ships 
lay outside the breakwater where the Hong Kong Maru was 
anchored. The breakwater was a structure of stones and 
timbers, built from the bed of the bay to the surface of the 
water, to break the force of the waves that roll landward 
during storms, and there are narrow openings in it by 
which vessels can pass in and out. Among the ships were 
two, white like their own, with the American flag floating 
from the peak. These were transports — ships that were 
carrying soldiers to San Francisco from Manila, in the 
Philippines. 

When the little, puffing, launch steamed alongside the 
stone steps of the quay, they walked across the gang plank, 
glad to be once more on dry land. Up and down the street 
were the funniest little vehicles that they had ever seen. 
They had slender shafts, two wheels and a hood, like a 
baby's perambulator; they were drawn by men, instead 
of ponies, and were called '' jinrikishas." Mary and Ellen 
grew accustomed to them before they had been long in the 
East, for they are used everywhere in Japan, and in all 
the Chinese cities where there are many Europeans. A 
jinrikisha carries usually but one passenger, although two 
Japanese ladies frequently hire one together. 

The stout little '' rikisha " men were quaintly dressed in 
short blue cotton trousers, a blue cotton blouse with a design 
embroidered on the back in white, and they wore straw hats 



30 



with broad, drooping brims. They were barefooted, and the 
muscles of the calves of their legs were greatly enlarged 
from constant running between the shafts of the little car- 
riages. They move at a quick trot, a pace which they keep 
for miles and all day long, stopping only to eat and drink. 
They are cheerful and contented and very polite, though 




A Jinrikisha 

they are paid small wages. Mary and Ellen thought it 
funny to see their father and mother riding in jinrikishas, 
and they made quite a procession — the four that Mr. 
Spencer had hired for the family, and the two which came 
last, loaded with their luggage, following one behind the 
other. 



31 



They kept the middle of the street, which was wide and 
clean. On one side were low houses, with galleries enclosed 
in glass, looking out across the bay. The gardens were not 
so fine as those in Honolulu, but they saw a good many 
plants and shrubs that were new to them. All the hotels 
were on this street, facing the bay. It is called the Bund, 
which is the name given in all the seaboard cities of Asia 
to the water front. They found a pleasant, quiet hotel, with 
polite and attentive Japanese servants who seemed anxious 
to please them. 

As on shipboard, luncheon was called tifHn, and this 
word was also used everywhere in China. In the afternoon 
they went by railway to Tokyo, the capital, which was a 
journey of but twenty minutes. The engine and carriages 
were like a toy train. The carriages for the poorer Japanese 
were plainer than those for foreigners and Japanese of 
rank and wealth. 

Mary and Ellen were amused at the people in the station. 
Newsboys went up and down selling papers which were 
printed in odd, black characters; other vendors were selling 
tea in cups and luncheons done up in neat, white, wooden 
boxes. '' May I buy one?" Mary asked her mother. '' Yes, 
if you think you can eat the food,'' her mother said. 

But this Mary would not promise to do ; she did not know 
whether she would like the things that the Japanese ate 
with such relish. 

" But if I do not,'' she said, '' I can give it to someone; I 
do not think it would be refused." So the box was bought. 
They opened it carefully and found in one end of it a 
quantity of fresh, steamed rice; some strange-looking 
pickles, fungi and mushrooms. There was no bread, for 



32 



the Japanese, like the Chinese, eat rice instead of bread, 
which is a luxury. A pair of new, wooden chopsticks went 
with the box. Mary and Ellen laughed, and shook their 
heads ; they did not want the rice, and did not care to taste 
the mushrooms. Ellen held out the box to a little girl 
dressed in a pretty gown of blue cotton, called a kimona. 

Her hair was arranged 
over a cushion and held 
in place with gilt pins, 
like those which her 
mother also wore. The 
child was very shy, and 
held to her mother's 
skirts. The woman said 
something in Japanese, 
and then the little one 
stretched out her hand, 
took the box, and both 
the mother and child 
bowed very low several 
times. 

A few of the Japanese 
wore the European 
dress, or a mixture of 
foreign and native cos- 
tume, but these, Mary 




Japanese Ladies 



and Ellen agreed, were not half so interesting as the Japan- 
ese who still preferred their own dress. Many of the pretty 
little ladies wore delicate gray, blue, or brown silks and 
crepes, and all, rich and poor alike, had socks of white 
cloth and shoes called geta^ which are little more than soles 



33 



with a strap passing between the great toe and the second 
toe, to hold them in place. Each pair of geta is furnished 
with small bits of wood, instead of heels, upon which the 
wearer balances herself awkwardly, and which make a 
clattering sound as the crowds move to and fro. 

The country was very green, with fields and gardens 
cultivated with great care. Upon the hillsides among the 
shrubs they saw huge Japanese letters, and they were much 
surprised when their father told them that these were 
advertisements, precisely like the ugly signs that are painted 
upon roofs and fences and rocks at home. It is one of 
the things that the Japanese have learned from the for- 
eigners that it would be better for them not to know. 






Japanese Shoes 

At Tokyo the station is much like that at Yokohama, 
but the city itself is far more Japanese. The streets are 
muddy in wet weather and lined on either side with low 
wooden shops, in which there are many beautiful things 
for sale. They hired jinrikishas again, and were drawn 
rapidly through the city, which spreads over much ground. 
On the main street they found a very dilapidated street 
car line, the cars drawn by poor, feeble horses. The people 
enjoyed riding in the cars, especially on the ' platform. 
Both men and women smoked little brass pipes, or cigarettes 
which they preferred. They saw the Emperor's palace, 
beyond the moat, or canal, which has been dug outside the 
krout's china — 3 



34 



high stone wall. Soldiers wearing foreign uniforms stood 
at the gates or paced to and fro. 

They visited the beautiful temples and some ancient tombs, 
and then wxnt to a fine bazaar, where ]\Irs. Spencer bought 
some pretty china and pieces of embroidered silk and crepe. 
Ellen and ]\Iary were allowed to choose something, and both 




Main Street, Tokyo 

selected purses embroidered in chrysanthemums, with clasp:^ 
of carved silver. 

They had dinner at a large European hotel, and then went 
back to Yokohama in the afternoon. The next morning, as 
they were to sail at noon, they visited the Bluff, where the 
finest houses and gardens are to be seen, and spent some time 
in the shops, looking at many beautiful things. 



35 



III. SOUTHWARD BOUND 

THE ship did not sail straight south, as Mary thought 
it would, but steamed within sight of the coast, 
against which the waves beat violently, the spray dashing 
far up the face of the cliffs. In the afternoon they saw 
a lofty peak rising out of the mist that hid the lower 
slopes. It was a perfect cone, the sides sloping gently 
and widening toward the base. It was covered with snow, 
which reflected the light of the setting sun in countless lovely 
tints — pale rose color, violet and gray. The sky was clear 
and the snowy peak was outlined against a background of 
pale blue, so that every line was distinct. Mr. Spencer told 
them that this was Fujiyama, the mountain which the Jap- 
anese have always worshiped and held sacred for its beauty. 
It appears in nearly all Japanese pictures, upon fans, and 
screens, banners and porcelain. The girls both remembered 
to have seen many pictures of it, and easily recognized it. 
When it began to grow dark thousands of lights twinkled 
upon the sea and along the shore — the lights in the sampans 
of the fishermen, and in the villages. The next morning 
when they av/oke they were steaming through the Inland 
Sea, which is really a channel among the islands, its waters 
studded with myriads of smaller islands. The land was 
green, from the narrow beach to the top of the hills, with 
the terrace-gardens of the village people. Here and there 
were small temples, and in front of each, at some distance, 
was an arch, with the ends slightly turned upward. They 
were the entire day steaming through the Inland Sea, which 
Mr. Spencer said was one of the most beautiful of voyages, 
which they could well believe. They never tired of looking 



36 



at the tiny rocky islands, the clustered villages, the green 
gardens and the feathery pine trees, which could be seen 
distinctly from the deck of their ship. A great many small 




Fujiyama 

steamers sailed up and down, more than they had seen since 
they left the Bay of San Francisco; and with these were 
hundreds of sampans, and now and then a huge, ugly Chinese 
junk. They were very much excited when they saw the 



37 



first junk, with its broad sails of matting, the square bows 
sharpened on either side Hke tusks, and the huge painted eyes 
which the Chinese think every junk must have, and without 
which they believe it would not be able to make its way 
through the storm and darkness. 

The Hong Kong Maru touched at two ports in the 
south, Kobe and Nagasaki. Both were pretty Japanese 
towns, with clean streets and shops, surrounded by high 
hills covered with pine and camphor trees. The camphor 
tree grows very tall, and has glossy, dark foliage, and it is 
often to be found in the courts about the temples. 

At Nagasaki the '' rikisha '' man cut a piece of the cam- 
phor wood, which was white and fine - grained, and gave 
it to Mary. The odor was exactly like the gum, but 
in a little while after the wood had been exposed to the air 
this odor was gone. At Kobe the ship took on more coal, 
for the great furnaces under the boilers of the Hong Kong 
Mam burned hundreds of tons every day. No ship could 
carry enough coal to last through the voyage across the 
Pacific Ocean; all the ships going out to China take on a 
fresh supply both at Honolulu and at Kobe. Japanese 
women and children, as well as men, helped to coal. They 
came out to the ship in great barges, in which the coal 
also was brought, and these barges were anchored close 
to the ship. Then two lines were formed; one set of men 
and women filled their baskets, which were not large, and 
passed them from hand to hand until they reached the 
ship, and the line of children passed the empty baskets 
back again. There were several hundred people, and they 
worked all day ; but they seemed happy and cheerful, laugh- 
ing and talking as they tossed their baskets to and fro. 



38 



On Sunday the rocky shores of Japan sank out of sight 
and they saw them no more. Late in the afternoon the color 
of the water changed; where the sea had been clear and 
blue, it became yellow and muddy. No land was yet in sight, 
but the yellow water was the current of the great Yang- 
tze Kiang, the largest river in China, and one of the great 




On the Yangtze River 

rivers of the globe. It rises in the table-lands of Tibet, 
which the Chinese call '' the roof of the world,'' and flows 
through lofty mountain gorges in the west across the level 
plains to the sea, a distance of three thousand miles. It is 
thirty-eight miles wide at its mouth, and the mud which 
it carries out to sea is really the fertile land of countless 
farms which the current of the river has eaten away. 



39 



After a while a low, grayish-green shore appeared in sight 
with a few ash and willow trees. China has few trees, 
and no forests except upon its western and northern bound- 
aries. 

Shanghai, they found, had not been built directly upon the 
sea, but upon the north shore of the Wusung River, which 




View of Shanghai 

is broad and sluggish, with low banks, like a canal. At 
its mouth is a dangerous bar, which the Chinese call '' the 
Heaven-Sent Barrier,'' because large warships can not enter 
the river, as they might if the bar were not in the way. 
The name '' Shanghai,'' Mr. Spencer explained, is a Chinese 
word meaning " Approaching the Sea.'' 



40 



The voyage was at end ; but, instead of being glad, Mary 
and Ellen were almost sad. The ship had become a home, 
the days had passed quickly, and the ocean had never lost 
its charm. The girls went to their cabin to help their mother 
pack, and in a little while all their things were stowed away 
in the trunks and bags ready to be sent off in the launch. 
The big ship could not cross the bar, but anchored outside. 

The morning was dull and dismal. The sea was rough, 
and the rain fell in torrents. It was not easy to climb down 
the ladder to the launch, which tossed and rocked like a 
cork; but one of the officers helped them carefully, and 
they were not afraid. Until they reached the river the little 
launch was tossed about roughly, but once within the banks 
of the Wusung there was no more motion, and but for the 
level fields slipping past they would scarcely have known 
that they were moving. The fields were quite flat, but 
bare and brown, for it was now the early autumn and the 
crops had been gathered. 

" What are those curious mounds ? '' Ellen asked, pointing 
out several heaps of earth upon which a few tufts of 
coarse grass had sprung up. '' Those are graves," her 
mother replied. '' In China the dead are not buried in 
cemeteries, but quite often by the roadside, or in the fields 
as you see them here. Rich people often have private 
burial places, and keep them in order. The dead are not 
buried in the fields through any lack of respect, as you 
might suppose, because the place finally chosen is given 
a great deal of thought. A man called a ' geomancer ' is 
hired who pretends that, by charms and signs, he can find 
a ' lucky ' place. He searches, often for a long time, or 
makes his patrons think that he has done so, and he is paid 



41 



while the search goes on. The place of burial is whatever 
spot he may select, and no one thinks of disputing the 
choice that he makes." 

As they steamed up the river they caught sight of great 
mills, with rows of windows and tall chimneys, out of which 
the smoke rolled in thick clouds. They might have been 
approaching an American city, and they were rather dis- 
appointed. 

'•' Those ^re English and American silk and cotton mills/' 
said Mr. Spencer, '' but all the people who work in them 
are Chinese — men, women and children. • They live in 
villages in the mill ' compound ' — the grounds upon which 
the buildings stand — and they are happy, because they have 
work and good wages all the year round. Not many work- 
ing people in China are so fortunate. These villages are like 
other native villages — low, gray brick houses with tiled 
roofs and brick floors, and in the shops they buy all the 
strange-looking things which they use and prefer for food. 
But the foreigners who own the mills pay for the schools 
where the children are taught, and for the hospital where the 
sick are sent, or those who may be hurt in the mills, who 
are nursed and taken care of until they get well.'' 

The Wusung was very crooked, winding and curving be- 
tween its low banks, upon w^hich nothing grew except the 
thin, faded grass and a few stunted willows that were begin- 
ning to turn yellow. At the jetty where they went ashore 
there were many foreign steamers, none of them very large 
because they could not have crossed the bar ; a little Ameri- 
can warship, the Monocacy : scores of junks, and hundreds 
of tiny boats which the Chinese call '' shoe boats," because 
they are much the shape of a Chinese shoe. These shoe 



42 



boats had come down to the mouth of the river to bring 
back many Chinese passengers out of the steerage of the 
foreign ships. 

It was still raining hard, but, notwithstanding this, their 
first sight of Shanghai pleased the girls. The wide 
streets were shaded with tall trees ; there were buildings 
upon one side only — that opposite the river bank. The 
sidewalks were of stone, and the buildings, banks, and 
offices were tall and handsome. '' I could easily believe 
we were in an English city," said ]Mrs. Spencer. 

The Chinese hate the rain, and when the weather is bad 
they stay within doors ; or, if they are too poor to own 
houses, find shelter wherever they can. Mary and Ellen 
had never seen such strange-looking policemen; they were 
dark, with black eyes, straight noses, and very fine fea- 
tures ; they wore tall turbans of red or other gay colors, 
with dark-blue uniforms bright with brass buttons. 

"' I have never seen men with such huge feet," whispered 
Ellen; but she need not have feared hurting their feelings, 
for they could neither speak nor understand English; and, 
for this reason they could not answer any questions that a 
stranger might ask them. This was sometimes an incon- 
venience. " They are Sikhs," said Mr. Spencer, who also 
thought they were handsome men and that their gay turbans 
and neat uniforms were extremely becoming. '' They come 
from India, but are soldiers in the British army : for, as 
you already know, India is a part of the British Empire, 
and the ruler is the King of England. One of the king's 
titles is ' Emperor of India,' and these Sikhs, who are 
brave, fearless men, are his soldiers." 

They went to the hotel in jinrikishas, of which there were 



43 



great numbers waiting under the trees along the curbstone. 
They were rather damp, but the '' rikisha '' men had tilted 
them forward so that it might not rain into them, and when 
the men were called they came running up eagerly. When 
their passengers had stepped in and were seated, an oilcloth 
curtain was hooked across the front which shut out not only 
the rain, but all sight of the streets through which they 
were taken. Presently they heard the wheels rumble across 
a bridge, which they knew must span the Wusung, and they 
swept around in a wide circle through a gateway and halted 
at the hotel steps. It was such a pleasant place, so cheerful 
and comfortable, even on that rainy day. People sat chatting 
in wicker chairs on the verandas, and near the door were 
half a dozen Chinese — real Chinese — with all sorts of 
beautiful things to sell. Ellen and Mary both stopped to look 
at them. They admired the little carved wooden figures — 
mandarins, Chinese ladies, servants and children, and even 
toy jinrikishas. They were told that these were " Ningpo '' 
carvings; that is, they were made in Ningpo, a Chinese 
city famous for its wood carving. One odd toy was a 
pair of fighting cocks made of brown pumpkin seeds, 
fastened together loosely with fine brass wire, so that they 
could move easily; the feet and legs were of wire, the 
combs of red cloth, the bills of white paper, and the tail 
and wings were made each of a single soft, brown, hen's 
feather. They were strung upon a '' T '' shaped bamboo 
stick with silk thread, which was fastened to their backs 
and heads in such a way that when the thread was pulled 
the tiny cocks drew up their legs, struck with feet and bills, 
and ruffled their necks as if they were very angry. Ellen and 
Mary were so much interested that their mother had to tell 



44 



them finally that they must come with her as the '' Boy/' 
as they had already learned to call the Chinese servants 
on board the ship, was waiting to show them to their rooms. 
The hotel was very clean, with long corridors looking 
down upon open courts where the grass was still quite green, 
and in which late flowers, such as dahlias, and marigolds 
and nasturtiums, were still blooming. Many of the floors 
were bare and brightly polished ; this was for coolness dur- 
ing the summer, for it is then very hot in Shanghai. When 
they went down to tiflin they found the long dining room 
like that in any American hotel, but the people seated at the 
tables were talking in many languages, and nearly everyone 
ate rice and curry, as many of the passengers had done on 
board the ship. The rice is steamed and then dressed with 
a yellow powder, which has a strong, unpleasant odor; but 
it is considered very wholesome, and people everywhere in 
Asia eat a great deal of it. The rice was handed round first, 
and then the servant, a Chinese in a blue frock, of course, 
brought a small circular tray in which there were various 
kinds of cold meats and fish, which were also to be eaten 
with curried rice. Mr. Spencer said that the foreign people 
who live in China and India have a funny name for new- 
comers who have not learned to eat rice and curry ; they 
call them '' griffins." There was one kind of fruit which 
Mary and Ellen both thought delicious. They had eaten it 
m New York, but there it was rather sour and bitter. This 
was the grape fruit, which the Chinese call pumelo. The 
Chinese fruit is large, of a pale yellow, with a thin skin, 
like fine leather; within, it is rich and juicy, with a flavor 
like ripe cherries. When the '' Boy " at their table learned 
how much the girls liked the pumelo he never failed to put 



45 



one on their table, morning, noon and night, smiling, as if 
he were very glad to please them, as indeed he was. 



IV. IN AND AROUND SHANGHAI 

MARY and Ellen felt the same surprise in Shanghai 
as they had experienced in Honolulu at seeing so 
many fine shops. 

The book stores are as good as those in New York, but 
they noticed that nearly all the books had been printed in 
London or Paris, and very few in America. What we call 
dry goods stores, the people speak of as '' drapers' shops," 
the word that is always used in England. But even in the 
English quarter of Shanghai are splendid Chinese shops. 
The shrewd Chinese merchants are glad to carry on their 
business in this part of the city where there are good 
streets and sidewalks, and where they can depend upon 
the foreigners visiting them and buying, as they always do. 
Many of these Chinese merchants have thus become quite 
rich, and, if they do not like the foreigners, they are very 
careful to conceal it, and are most polite. 

The day after they landed, while Mr. Spencer went to 
one of the great banks to meet the gentlemen for whom he 
was to do business, Mrs. Spencer and the two girls decided 
to go out for a drive. The rain had ceased and the sun 
shone bright and warm ; everything was fresh and delight- 
ful, and they were eager to be off. 

A carriage was ordered, a low victoria with a fat, white 



46 



Chinese pony. The Chinese driver who sat on the box wore 
a dark green gown with several capes bordered with red; 
his hat had a drooping brim and a queer, peaked crown 
covered with threads of crimson, Hke coarse fringe. A boy 
sat beside him, dressed in the same way. The driver and 




On the Bund 



the boy are called in Chinese the '' Maf u " and the '' little 
Mafu.'' 

'' Mafu " drove the fat pony that trotted along soberly 
enough, and '' little Mafu '' leaped on and off the box as nim- 
bly as a squirrel, to open doors, or to carry parcels. Some- 
times he ran ahead to the corner to see if other carriages were 
coming, against which he feared they might collide, for the 
Chinese are not careful drivers. After buying some gloves 



47 



and ribbons, Mrs. Spencer told the '' Mafu " to drive to 
one of the large Chinese shops. He could understand 
English pretty well, but he talked a queer mixture 
which in China is called " pidgin," or '' business '' English, 
'' pidgin '' being as near to '' business " as the Chinese 
tongue can get. Ellen and Mary had noticed that the 
Chinese can not pronounce '' r,'' and a few other letters of 
our alphabet; that they use the letter ''1" a great deal, 
and end many words with '' ee.'' They speak, too, in 
strange, singing tones, the voice rising and falling, and 
Mrs. Spencer said that this was because Chinese is what is 
called a " tone language.'' 

In addition to all the words that they use, each word 
may be pronounced in several tones, each tone changing 
the meaning of the word. This has made it very hard for 
foreigners to learn the language, and, by pronouncing a 
word in the wrong tone they make some funny mistakes 
at which not even the polite Chinese can help laughing. 
In the Chinese shop they saw many fine things in silver, 
— buckles, flasks, bracelets and vases, — all richly chased 
and carved, the work of Chinese silversmiths, who do all 
work by hand. There were also wonderful fans, brushes 
and caskets carved in ivory. There were curious ivory 
balls, one within the other, the large outer ball often con- 
taining a dozen or more smaller ones, all delicately carved 
in lace-like designs. There were also collections of sandal- 
wood boxes, and fans, and feather fans made of the plum- 
age of the golden pheasant with peacock feather borders, 
or of white goose feathers painted in flowers of blue, pink 
and bright green, the colors that the Chinese admire so 
much. One bracelet was made of carved peach stones, — 



48 



flat, polished disks on which flowers, vines, birds and 
dragons had been carefully carved, each disk set in a gold 
lace-work called filigree. 

Mrs. Spencer bought some pieces of fine grass-cloth, — 
thin, silvery linen which is woven in the southern provinces 
and in Canton from a kind of hemp, or the fiber of a 
nettle. Each piece was tied up in a neat parcel with threads 
of glossy pink and green silk, with the name of the mer- 
chant on it in Chinese letters. 

From this shop they drove into the New Chiang Road 
where all the shops are Chinese; they have neither doors 
nor windows, but heavy wooden shutters that are closed 
and fastened at night. Piles of silk and cloth were arranged 
on shelves, as in the foreign shops, and coats of blue, 
brown, black and plain colored satin, many of them lined 
with costly fur, were hung in lines overhead or in front. 
Ellen thought the gay little hats and caps for Chinese 
babies the prettiest things of all; they were of blue, red 
and green silk, with festoons of bits of metal, like coins, 
and white, pink, blue and green silk tassels, the cap thickly 
embroidered with gold thread; each little hat had a silken 
tuft on top, and many of the caps had coverings for the 
ears edged with gray fur. Mrs. Spencer said that the baby 
is named when it is one month old, and the Chinese ladies 
often take to the feast that is given at that time, quantities 
of these little metal coins which, when no longer needed, 
are given to some other baby. The girls thought this very 
economical, and after they had lived in China awhile they 
learned that the Chinese never waste anything, but every- 
thing they have does service as long as it can be made to 
last. They do not think it wrong to give to someone else. 



49 



things that have been given to them but which they can 
no longer use. Ellen said that this was much better than 
storing them away in some box or drawer to get dingy 
and yellow, and she decided that she herself would follow 
this sensible Chinese fashion. 

When they had finished their shopping they drove out on 
the Bubbling Well Road. It is a fine, smooth road, like 
an avenue in an American city, but the large villas on either 
side are like English houses except that each has deep, 
shady verandas which are seldom seen in England. The 
grounds' were surrounded by high brick walls, but the gates 
stood open and they could see the neat graveled walks, the 
smooth lawns, and flower beds. The road was given its 
name from a spring, or well, in which the water bubbles 
and boils where it flows out of the ground. There were 
many carriages like their own, with " Mafu " and '' little 
Mafu '' on the box in dark gowns, the capes bordered with 
all the colors of the rainbow. Two gaily dressed Chinese 
ladies, who could not have walked upon their tiny feet, 
rolled along in a great coach, the back, sides and front of 
which were all of glass. The Chinese admire these coaches 
very much. A Chinese gentleman was carried by in his 
sedan chair, which is a curtained box with poles on either 
side, extending in front and at the rear. These poles rest 
on the shoulders of coolies who trot quickly along chanting 
a melancholy tune by which they time their steps. The 
gentleman was dressed in silk and wore huge spetcacles 
with rims of tortoise shell. Mary thought that he stared at 
them scornfully, as no doubt he did, for Chinese gentlemen 
think it wrong for girls and women to go about alone. 
Their own waves and daughters rarely leave their homes. 
krout's china — 4 



50 



They saw the pretty wihow-pattern tea house, which 
every one visits who goes to Shanghai. It is on an island 
in the midst of a crooked pond which winds between its 
banks almost like a river, and which is spanned by a number 
of graceful Chinese bridges. ]^Iary said that the bridges 
and the tea house were like a picture on a willow-pattern 
plate, which she had seen at her grandmother's. Her 
mother replied that this was true, and that the plate had 
really been painted by a Chinese artist, and that her uncle, 
a sea captain, had brought it from China a great many years 
before. After leaving the tea house they drove in another 
direction, through the '* native city.'' The Chinese them- 
selves had built it, and they live there as they do in other 
parts of China, in low, dark houses with gray-tiled roofs, 
turned upward at the eaves. [Many of the streets are so 
narrow that the carriage could not be driven through 
them : they are paved, but are so dirty that Ellen and 
Mary hardly dared to look about them. The streets are not 
only dirty and narrow, but they are very dark. The upper 
stories of the houses project so that they almost shtit out 
the sun, and from the balconies perpendicular signs are 
swung — heavy boards painted in colors and covered with 
the queer Chinese characters in gold. The streets were 
crowded with people who were buying and selling; many 
were eating at the open-air restaurant. Rice, fish, pork and 
many kinds of greasy cakes were being sold which the 
cooks were frying in large kettles of boiling oil. 

They went for a short distance into the country amongst 
the rice fields which were still green. Here :^Iary and Ellen 
saw a number of large boxes standing about,, which they 
knew at once, from their shape, to be coffins. One, stained 



5^ 



with mud, had been buried and dug up again. The deep 
hole out of which it had been taken had not been refilled, 
and it was full of water. Some of the boxes had been pro- 
tected with low roofs; others were partially inclosed in 
brick and around others rolls of matting had been securely 
tied. A few had been left quite unprotected. Mary and 
Ellen did not need to be told that these were the coffins of 
people whose families were too poor to buy graves. It was 
very sad and dismal, and they were glad when the '' Mafu '' 
turned and drove back to Shanghai. The Park along the 
Bund was filled with well-dressed men and women, and 
there were many little English children with their amahs, or 
Chinese nurses, who are the only natives allowed to sit on 
benches or stroll about the paths. The tide was out, and 
where the Wusang had spread under the bridge to the low 
banks was now a stretch of mud. Scores of native boats, 
sampans and junks loaded with cotton and crockery from 
the west, were stuck fast, waiting for the tide to rise and 
float them off. 

When they reached their room their good " Boy," Tuck 
Kee, had lighted the fire and the tea table was drawn up in 
front of the cheerful blaze. The tea and toast had been kept 
hot, and it was very inviting after the long drive. 

They began to think that they should like living in China 
very much if they could only forget the coffins. 



52 



V. A HOUSE BOAT JOURNEY 

THE week after they reached Shanghai, a friend of Mr. 
Spencer invited the family to go with him on a 
journey to Suchau and Modo in his house boat. ^lary 
and Ellen had read about Chinese house boats but they 
had never seen one. They knew that people who could do 
so preferred to travel in this way, as the roads everywhere 
in China are very bad. They are cut into deep ruts by the 
heavy wheels of Chinese carts and wagons and are never 
graded or repaired in any way. When it rains in the spring 
and autumn they are so muddy that it is hard work to get 
about at all. When it has been raining for a long time 
the roads are like deep ditches — so full of water that men 
are sometimes drowned in them. The people have made 
canals everywhere, the largest of which is the Grand Canal. 
These waterways are much better than the roads for they 
never have to be mended. The Chinese do not like to mend 
anything but their clothes, their shoes, their fences and their 
broken dishes, all of which they do very neatly. They 
wear one suit of clothes the year round, wadding it with 
cotton in the winter. We do not think this very nice or 
cleanly, but it is the best that they can do, and they seem 
really cleaner than many of the poor in our own great 
cities. As the roads are so bad, thousands and thousands 
of Chinese travel through the country on the canals and 
the great rivers, and a large part of what they have to 
sell, — grain, cotton, oil, vegetables and wool, — they take 
to the markets in boats, as the people do in Holland. Ellen 
and ]Mary learned, too, that millions of the very poorest 
people are born in boats, live all their lives there, and die 



53 



in them at last. They saw thousands of boat people in 
Wusung creek, the boats lying side by side. A small piece 
of matting was curved above the middle of the boat, form- 
ing a low roof under which a man could hardly stand 
erect. The father, mother and children were crowded 
together in this narrow space. It is very cold in the winter, 




Life in the Boats 



although around Shanghai there is little frost or snow, 
and as they have no fire but the handful of charcoal which 
they burn in a brazier over which they boil their tea and 
rice when they are so fortunate as to have any, they suffer 
very much. Sometimes they own a duck or a chicken and 
the poor fowl is tied fast by the leg to the boat so that it 



54 



can not run away. Mary saw a cat tied in this way, its 
fur matted and dirty, huddled up as if it were very wretched. 
It probably was, for Chinese cats in the boats and hovels 
of the poor cannot keep clean, and they get very little 
to eat and no milk, which the Chinese do not use. 

The two girls were much interested in the house boat. 
They had seen several lying near the bridge, not far from 
the hotel. Most of them belonged to foreigners, although 
the wealthy Chinese also have such boats comfortably fitted 
up with plate glass windows curtained with silk. Mary and 
Ellen saw that the house boat was not unlike an American 
canal boat except that it was made of dark, polished wood. 
There were decks, fore and aft. The owner and his friends 
sat forward, this deck being spread with rugs and furnished 
with wicker chairs. The Chinese crew stayed aft, sleeping 
under the low deck and squatting about the rice kettle and 
teapot which they brought out above deck. The saloon 
was' supplied with divans covered with crimson which were 
curtained at night and served for beds; racks along the 
sides held papers and books, and there were lockers for the 
clothes and the rugs. It was well lighted with many small 
wdndows which were shaded with blinds that could be drawn 
at night or when the sun streamed in too brightly. They 
ate at an ordinary table which was spread with linen 
and china and silver, just as it would have been at home. 
On such a boat it is necessary for travelers to take with 
them everything that they may require, for very little can 
be bought in the cities that they may visit. It is a great 
deal of trouble to get ready for a house boat journey, and 
several days before one starts lists are made out of food, 
bedding, dishes, cooking utensils, linen and supplies of all 



55 



sorts. These are carefully gone over to see that nothing has 
been forgotten. Chinese servants do not like the house 
boat very much; they prefer to stay quietly at home and 
so avoid the trouble of packing and unpacking. All the 
cooking is done on board, and the cook and the boy who 
waits at table must go with the boat. The house boat is 
propelled by large sails, and, when the wind is in the wrong 
direction, by trackers, as the men are called who drag the 
boat along by means of a heavy rope. They walk on the 




The House Boat 



bank in a narrow, beaten path, like a towpath, pulling and 
shouting with all their might. The captain, or the man 
in charge, is called the '' Laota,'' which in Chinese means 
''old great.'' He usually makes a great deal of noise, 
screaming and using very bad language, fortunately in 
Chinese, so the foreigners on board are none the wiser. He 
calls the poor, patient trackers " pigs '' and other ugly 
names, to which they make no reply, tugging uncomplain- 
ingly at the heavy rope. When the wind favors, the trackers 



56 



raise the great sail and do other work as the. " Laota '' 
directs. 

Mr. and Mrs. Spencer and the two girls were the guests 
of Mr. Scott, who lived in Shanghai and who owned the 
boat. People in Shanghai, who are very kind and hospitable, 
often entertain their foreign visitors in this way. 

They were to be gone four or five days and Ellen and 
Mary put on their thick gowns and boots, for it is cool on 
the water. 

'' I shall go ashore and walk in the fields with papa," 
Mary said, '' for the walks are half the fun on a house boat 
journey." 

They also took their books, for there would be plenty of 
time for reading. They did not go on board the boat at the 
bridge where she lay, because it would take so long to steer 
through the crowded junks and sampans; but they drove 
out into the country and waited on the river bank. Mrs. 
Spencer sat down on a bench by the roadside in a sheltered 
place out of the wind which was rather keen. Ellen and 
Mary went into a garden across the road in which people 
were allowed to walk and climbed to the steps of a wooden 
tower. They could see the low gray roofs and the walls 
which shut in the native city, and the green rice fields which 
stretched away in every direction. The river wound across 
the level plain like a yellow ribbon, and there were hundreds 
of boats — the little dispatch boats which moved rapidly, 
rowed with the feet instead of the hands, — junks and house 
boats. Leather gloves were fastened to some of the oars, 
and the hands of the boatmen were thrust into them. 

Mary and Ellen laughed at this queer custom but Ellen 
said: 



57 



'' I think after all it is a very sensible fashion. I am sure 
that these boatmen never lose their gloves and always know 
just where to find them. The only trouble is that they can 
use them only when they are rowing. It would be a great 
deal of trouble to unfasten them from the oars every time 
they wanted to wear them.'' 

The large sails of the junks came slowly in sight, the 
heavy vessels propelled both by the wind, which was blowing 
in the right direction, and by the tide which was rising fast 
and would carry them on their way for thirty miles. Some 
of the sails were of matting, like those they had seen in the 
Inland Sea ; others were of cloth, — brown, gray, blue and 
even dark red in color. They were so graceful, towering aloft 
in the clear air with their soft, pleasing colors that they 
reminded Mary, she said, of flocks of great birds with wide- 
spread wings. At last they heard their mother call them 
and they ran down the steps and across the road. Their 
boat was in sight, the tall gray sails filling in the fresh, 
cool wind, and, what pleased them most of all, their own 
American flag fluttering at the bow. The '' Laota '' was 
on the forward deck, shouting and gesticulating to attract as 
much attention from the other boats as possible, so that 
other crews might see and envy the wonderful foreign 
house boat with its shining windows and the gay red 
and white flag, for the Chinese have a great admiration 
for flags. 

Presently the boat was brought about close to the shore; 
the plank was thrown out, one end resting on the deck and 
the other on the low bank, and they walked across this and 
were soon all on board. As they did not wish to lose the 
tide, the plank was raised at once and they moved slowly 



58 



up stream. They were delighted with everything, — the low, 
soft divans heaped with cushions, the pretty cabin with its 
warm hangings, and flounces on the shelves and table. In 
one comer was a small stove, firmly fastened in its place, 
in which a bright fire was burning. 

" I like the deck best," said ]Mary, '' although the cabin 
is so snug and pretty. I think that I shall sit out there. I 
want to see the boats, the river, the fields, and the queer 
people." 

She wxnt accordingly, without loss of time, and when she 
had seated herself in a low chair, Ah Lum, Mr. Scott's 
'' Number One Boy," came and wrapped her up snugly in 
warm wolf-skin rugs. She was happy and comfortable and 
presently Mrs. Spencer and Ellen came on deck, too, and 
were deeply interested in the strange sights all about them. 
" This is really China," said Ellen. The boats, both going 
up and down stream, grew thicker and thicker. On many 
women and even children were tugging at the oars, while 
the men squatted on their heels, smoking and gossiping and 
eating rice, or drinkng tea. 

" I think the poor women in China must lead very sad 
lives," said ^lary. '' They do all the hard work, they are not 
allowed to rest or enjoy themselves, and the children are 
not so merry and happy as the children in Japan ; and yet 
people are poor in that country, too, and have to work hard 
and have but little to eat." 

Mrs. Spencer could not explain this, but she said that the 
Japanese seem to be a more hopeful and a happier race than 
the Chinese. They are extremely fond of children, the 
parents playing with them and amusing them as if they 
themselves were children. 



59 



They saw a man plowing a field with a rude, heavy plow 
drawn by a strange animal ; it was big, awkward and 
covered with thick, dark brown hair, the long horns bent 
backward toward the ears. 

" What is it? " asked Mary. 

'' It is the water buffalo," she was told, '' which is used 
everywhere throughout the East, in China, the Philippines 
and India for plowing and drawing carts, as we use horses. 




Plowing with the Buffalo 



It is really an animal that lives much of the time in water 
and loves to wallow in the soft mud, in which, when it 
can, it buries itself up to the eyes. Once every day at 
least the buffalo must have its bath ; otherwise it almost 
goes mad, running in a frenzy and attacking whatever is in 
the w^ay. The Chinese could hardly live without their water 
buffalo ; nothing else could take its place in the marshy 
rice fields, although we get on without it in our Southern 



6o 



States. However, we do not raise rice in quite the same 
way/' 

Just then an ugly dog that was following the man turned, 
glared at the house boat and barked fiercely, and the buffalo 
began to rear and plunge in fright. They were near the 
shore and could see the animal distinctly. '' They have 
caught scent of us," said Mr. Scott. '' All Chinese animals 
hate the scent of a foreigner. The Chinese themselves do 
not like it ; they say we smell like sheep.'' 

Ellen and Mary laughed, and wondered why they were 
not conscious of it, but upon the whole they thought it a 
more pleasant odor than that of the Chinese who do not 
bathe very often and who, rich and poor alike, eat a great 
deal of garlic. The plowman finally quieted the buffalo, 
which moved across the field, but the shaggy dog ran toward 
them, still growling and barking. Fortunately he could not 
get at them and he was soon left behind. 

Then Ah Lum, Mr. Scott's '' Boy," sounded the gong and 
tiffin was served. 

In the afternoon the house boat was dragged near the bank 
by the trackers, the plank was lowered and they all went 
ashore for a walk. They enjoyed the brisk exercise in the 
cold, invigorating air, and Mary and Ellen came back with 
their hair tossed by the wind and their cheeks glowing like 
roses. 

Dinner was quite like dinner at home, with soup and fish 
and a joint, and fruit and cakes for dessert. It had all been 
prepared in a tiny closet, which served as a kitchen, behind 
the saloon. Here Ah Chung, the cook, and Ah Lum also 
spread down their mats and slept at night. Mrs. Spencer 
said that many a foreign cook, with a great, roomy kitchen, 



6i 



could not have prepared so good a dinner as that which 
Ah Chung got for them in his dark Httle galley. 

After dinner they talked and read ; then the divans were 
covered with sheets and blankets and the thick crimson 
curtains were hung around them. Mary and Ellen soon 
went to sleep, the water rippling drowsily under their 
window. 



VI. MODO 

THE next morning it was quite cloudy and when they 
awoke and looked out of the window the creek was 
still covered with boats. The '' Laota '* had come in and 
built the fire, and they could hear Ah Lum in the little 
kitchen chatting to Ah Chung among his pots and pans. 
Breakfast would soon be ready, so they dressed quickly, 
put on their hats and coats and went out on the deck, where 
they found their father and mother enjoying the fresh 
air. Ah Lum came into the saloon, took down the curtains 
and put them away, stored the bedding in the lockers, 
opened the doors and windows and put everything in order 
for the day. The table was set and they were called to 
breakfast, for which they were quite ready. 

They had now left Wusung creek and entered the Grand 
Canal. This is one of the great waterways of China. It 
has been used for more than a thousand years, and is seven 
hundred miles long. It is like a broad river with low banks, 
except that there is almost no current. Hundreds of small 



62 



canals empty into it which are Hke private roads, with Httle 
water gates that can be opened and closed. Up and down 
these canals boats were passing to the farms beyond. The 
Grand Canal near the villages is spanned by sharply arched 
bridges under which the junks can move, some of them 




The Grand Canal 



without even lowering their sails. Men and boys leaned 
over the bridges and looked down at them, chattering and 
laughing, and talking about them very frankly. They knew 
the flag, and pointed it out to each other. Mr. Scott under- 
stood the language and he said that they were not disrespect- 
ful, for the Chinese have always been friendly to Americans ; 



63 



but they made jokes as they always do about everything. 
At one village, where a small creek emptied into the canal, 
they saw a crowd gathered about a sampan upon the sides 
of which some large white birds were sitting ; they had 
bills like geese, but their necks were long and slender. 
''What are they?" asked Mary, watching the crowd of 
Chinese who appeared to be admiring the birds extremely. 
Their owner was so interested in talking about them, — tell- 
ing no doubt of their wonderful exploits, — that he did not 
at first notice the approach of the house boat. 

" Those are cor- 
morants,'' said Mr. 
Scott. " The Chi- 
nese find them very^ 
useful for fishing. 
The birds are taken 
out on the water, 
the hungrier they 
are the better. For 
that matter, they 
seem to be always 
hungry. A tight 
collar is fastened around the neck, not tight enough to choke 
them, or to hurt them, but fitting so closely that they cannot 
swallow. When their owner reaches the fishing grounds 
the cormorants are let loose, and dive after the fish which 
they can see at a great depth. They seize a fish in their 
bills, but cannot swallow it because of the snug collar. 
They are brought back into the boat and the fish taken from 
them, but every time they are rewarded with a morsel 
which can slip down their throats. They are supposed 




Fishing Cormorants 



64 



to be very greedy, although perhaps they do not eat much 
more than ducks and geese, who are hunting food most 
of the time. But they have the name of being greedy and 
now we use' the word * cormorant ' sometimes when we 
speak of a very greedy man.'' 

The birds were not disturbed by the crowd, but they 
appeared dull and stupid, as if they had had more to eat 
than vv'as good for them, which happens sometimes to human 
beings as well as to cormorants. 

All the larger cities of China are enclosed in high brick 
walls with openings at regular intervals along the top 
through which soldiers can shoot arrows or fire their guns, 
for the Chinese nowadays have learned to use firearms. 
They have warships on the sea and on their rivers, and 
armies on the land : but their soldiers are not so brave nor 
so well trained as the Japanese. The city walls are about 
thirty feet high, — double walls of masonry filled in with 
earth and paved with stone on top. This pavement is about 
twenty-five feet wide. There are gates to the north, south, 
east and west, which are really heavy doors, around which 
are built two other walls at right angles, forming a hollow 
square ; in this inner wall is another gate opening into the 
streets of the city. The gates are closed at night and should 
a traveler arrive too late he must wait outside until morning 
when the gates are opened again. 

The double gates are for better defense, for, if the outer 
gate is broken down, there is still another to be forced, 
which the people may be able to defend and thus save 
themselves and their homes. The strong brick walls are so 
high that it is hard work to scale them ; and, besides this, 
diere is either a canal, as at Suchau, or a wide, deep ditch 



65 



filled with water, called a moat, dug all around them; the 
walls cannot then be reached except by boats, which are in 
danger of being sunk. The double walls, the outer and 
inner, are filled with earth and paved on top. Grass, 
shrubs, and even small trees spring up in the cracks of the 
pavement. In the autumn people are allowed to gather the 
weeds, grass and dead leaves, which they use for fuel. 

The house boat reached Suchau the second day and 
passed under the wall, but they decided to go on to Modo, 
and then return. 

Modo is little more than a village, dark and dirty, and 
crowded with people. It lies huddled at the foot of a steep, 
high hill — the only hill in that region — which can be seen 
for a long distance. 

They did not wait to see the shops, which were rather 
poor, but hurried through the crowds that had begun to 
gather to stare at the foreigners, to the outskirts of the town, 
a wide, grassy space like an open meadow. 

A young Chinese prince had once lived in the pleasure 
garden which he laid out on top of the hill, but now nothing 
is left but a temple — a Chinese pagoda with many stories, 
or terraces, rising one above the other, and narrowing at 
the top. A zig-zag brick pavement has been laid from the 
foot to the very top of the hill, and at regular distances 
are broad paved spaces provided with seats where people 
can rest. There are many graves upon the hillside; some 
are the graves of nobles and soldiers, with moss-grown 
inscriptions in Chinese letters on the headstones. They 
had long been forgotten, and the withered grass around 
them rustled softly, as if whispering their story. 

It was a long, hard climb and Mrs. Spencer and the girls 
krout's china — 5 



66 



rested from time to time upon the stone benches. Then 
they started on again and were soon at the top of the hill. 
Mr. Scott was there before them, with their father. The 
pagoda from the foot of the hill appeared airy and graceful, 
but near at hand it was gray and grimy and falling into 

decay. At each corner, 
from the lowest terrace 
to the top, was hung a 
small bronze bell; the 
clapper was a thin piece 
of metal shaped like the 
leaf of a lotus, a kind 
of water lily which both 
the Japanese and Chi- 
nese consider a sacred 
flower. As the wind 
blew the bells to and 
fro, they gave out a 
faint musical chime that 
was sweet but very 
mournful. Within the 
temple were many al- 
tars, upon which were 
figures of Buddha, 
whom many of the 
A Pagoda Chinese worship, and 

about the figures were arranged vases and candlesticks of 
burnished brass. There were also fierce and scowling gods 
whom the people worship, for the Chinese think that they 
must keep the wicked gods in a good humor by offering 
them gifts, for fear they will do them harm. 




67 



The priests that live in these temples, though poor and 
ignorant, are often quite gentle and polite. The heads of 
the Buddhist priests are shaved smooth, and they wear 
dirty clothes of rags which they have patched together. 
Travelers can often lodge in the temples, and can almost 
always buy food of the priests. The young man who came 
to meet them at the entrance of the pagoda closed his hands 
and placed one upon the other, raised them to his forehead, 
and then bowed almost to the ground. This is the way 
in which almost all Chinese men greet each other; women 
simply close the hands, place them one upon the other in 
the same way, move them up and down and nod their heads. 
Ellen thought this very queer. 

*'They shake their own hands in this funny, topsy-turvy 
country,'' she said, '^ instead of shaking ours ! " 

The priest spoke to Mr. Scott in Chinese and then invited 
them to be seated upon the narrow benches near a table, 
and there he left them. He came back in a little while 
with, cups and hot water. A pinch of tea or dried willow 
leaves was placed in each cup and the hot water poured 
over them, the cup, which had a lid, resting in a holder 
like a saucer with a hole in the middle of it. The holder 
was to keep the hot cup from burning the fingers, and the lid 
was to prevent one from swallowing the tea leaves, it being 
lifted just a little as one drinks. Mary's cup was bluish- 
white porcelain, covered witTi lovely flowers and vines, and 
Mr. Scott bought it for her from the priest as a keepsake. 
Ellen was also allowed to keep hers. After the tea was poured 
the priest brought them some Chinese delicacies, roasted 
pumpkin seeds, sugared peanuts and thin strips of rice flour 
paste that seemed to have been dried instead of baked. Had 



68 



they been really hungry, this fare would not have been very 
satisfying. The priests had a little garden, and a few geese 
in a pond, but Mr. Scott said that they do not like to work ; 
they are about the only lazy people in China. 

Nothing was left of the pleasure garden but the lotus 
pond which was dry and in which nothing grew. It was a 
square basin walled with stone and had once been full of 
water. It must have been very pretty then with the pink 




" W ' ffl '^ L A mmmmm 







A Chinese Garden 

and white blossoms of the lotus and the dark glossy leaves 
floating on its surface. 

A path led to the crest of the hill overlooking a broad 
valley, green with rice fields, the canals that separated them 
glittering in the sunshine like silver. To the west they could 
see a chain of lakes, and far off the dark walls of Suchau. 

The young Prince of Modo had chosen a beautiful site for 
his pleasure garden. Mr. Scott told them his story. He 
had been at war with his neighbor, the powerful Prince of 



69 



Hangchau, who at last, when he saw that he could not 
conquer his enemy, pretended to make friends with him 
and gave him his lovely young daughter for his wife. The 
Prince of Modo loved his young wife very dearly. She 
must have been both wise and good, for he was so anxious 
to please her and to make her happy. He got for her every- 
thing she wished, and made the lotus pond and the garden 
and built the palace that she might not regret that she had 
left her own family and her home. They were so contented 
that they quite forgot the world. The Prince did not care 
to fight any longer and he spent all his time with his beau- 
tiful Princess in the palace, or walking about the garden, or 
feeding the gold fish in the lotus pond. One day the cruel 
and treacherous Prince of Hangchau marched quietly into 
Modo with his army, put the young Prince to death, destroy- 
ed the palace, and carried his daughter back to Hangchau. 

Ellen thought that this was a very sad story, and she 
stopped a moment by the empty lotus pond and tried to 
picture the young Princess with her bright black eyes and 
glossy black hair, and knew how she must have mourned for 
her husband. 

The sun was setting when they started down the hill again, 
and it was quite dark when they went on board, the " Laota " 
ordering the men to hoist the sail. In the morning they 
were at Suchau, and ready to go ashore again for more 
sight-seeing, after they had had their breakfast. 



70 



VIL SUCHAU 

NEITHER carts nor jinrikishas could be hired in Su- 
chau, so they prepared for a long walk. Mary and 
Ellen were young and strong, and they did not object to 
this, and they were so interested in what they saw that they 
did not realize that they were tired until they had come back 
to the house boat. 

Ah Chung stayed on board to have tiffin ready for them, 
while the '' Laota '' and the Chinese crew hurried away 
to the Chinese inns to gossip with their friends, to smoke, 
and to drink tea. 

The streets of Suchau are like those of the native city 
of Shanghai, — paved with stone, narrow, dark and dirty. 
But some of the shops were quite splendid. At the jeweler's 
they saw fine gems and collections of pearls which the 
Chinese prize much more than diamonds. At a florist's they 
were shown queer dwarfed trees in pots of blue porcelain. 
The roots had never been allowed room to grow, and the 
stunted boughs, clipped and pruned, were gnarled and twist- 
ed like the boughs of very old trees. The Chinese consider 
these dwarf trees very ornamental. They buy them for their 
gardens or courtyards and protect them from the cold in 
the winter. There were also small spruce trees cut into 
the form of storks, lions and other animals ; bits of glass 
were used for the eyes and in the mouths were tongues 
made of red cloth. The florist was so pleased with their 
notice that he invited them into the shop and led the w^ay to 
the court in the rear, which must have been very pretty in 
the spring and summer, when the plum, apricot and quince 
trees were in bloom and the pond covered with lotus bios- 



71 



soms. The chrysanthemums were budding, but it was as 
yet too early for the blossoms. Mr. Scott showed them how 
cunningly the gardener had grafted the slips of chrysanthe- 
mum on a strong, coarse weed, the artemisia, because the 
large stem of the latter could nourish the flowers much 
better than the slender stalks of the chrysanthemum itself. 
There was no grass in this Chinese garden, and none in 
any garden that they saw afterwards. Grass does not grow 
well anywhere in China. None of the plants were set in 
beds as we grow them, but they were all planted in porcelain 
pots which we would have thought much too fine for flower 
pots, and these were placed in rows along the walks. One 
large ash tree grew in the center of the court. The gardener 
was very proud of it, as there are so few trees in China. 
The girls noticed several of the dwarf trees which were set 
where they could not fail to be seen ; there was a rockery 
like a miniature mountain, with toy bridges spanning little 
chasms, and rivulets trickling down the miniature cliffs. 

The florist offered them tea, and was much pleased when 
Mrs. Spencer bought some flowers which he arranged very 
prettily. 

After they had left the florist's shop they passed the fish 
market, where they saw a clever plan which the Chinese 
have for keeping fish alive until they are ready to be eaten. 
A number of boxes filled with water are arranged one above 
the other in such a way that a running stream falls continu- 
ally from the upper box into those beneath. In the lowest 
box, which is placed upon the ground, the fish swim about, 
able to breathe in the water that has thus been mixed with 
air. They saw another sight, however, which made them 
shiver, — men scaling fish before they had been killed. These 



72 



men did not seem to notice or care how the poor creatures 
writhed and struggled. 

'' It is dreadful/' said Mrs. Spencer. 

'' You will see a great deal of such cruelty," Mr. Scott 
told her. '' The people in China do not treat dumb creatures 
kindly, and they can not understand why we are so consid- 
erate of them. It may be,'' he added, '' that they have been 
so cruelly treated themselves in the past that they have now 
ceased to feel sympathy for anything." 

As they passed a house they heard a child sobbing and 
crying. It was being beaten by its mother, and the blows 
of the stick could be distinctly heard. Mrs. Spencer wished 
to go into the house and stop the angry mother, who shouted 
and scolded. 

" No," said Mr. Scott, '' you must never meddle with 
Chinese children. Foreigners are suspected of bewitching 
them, stealing them, and then putting them to death. Al- 
though the Chinese themselves leave their baby daughters in 
the streets to die, they can be stirred up to burn and kill if 
they can be made to believe that foreigners harm the little 
ones in any way." 

They went on very quickly but Mrs. Spencer could not 
forget the crying of the poor baby that she would have liked 
to rescue if she could have done so. They intended to visit 
a large temple in the very heart of the city, and found it 
rather hard to get through the crowds that blocked the 
way, — scores of boys and men following them. They were 
not unfriendly, fortunately, but the foreigners hurried on, 
looking neither to the right nor to the left. 

When they reached the temple the curious Chinese dropped 
behind and did not trouble them any more. A great fair 



73 



was g'oing on in the temple court where books, crockery and 
birds in cages were oftered for sale. Grown men were 
amusing themselves spinning tops, for in China even gray- 
haired grandfathers spin tops and fly kites when the season 
rolls around, for they have their seasons for such things, just 
as boys in our country have. 

Chinese top-spinning was unlike anything that Mary and 
Ellen had ever seen ; the tops are quite large and make a 
loud, humming noise, which the Chinese like to hear. The 
top is thrown on the ground with a quick toss from a cord 
that had two wooden handles like a skipping rope. While 
it is whirling so fast that it can hardly be seen, the cord 
is drawn very tight and on this the top is caught again 
and tossed high in the air still spinning and humming. 
Then it is caught on the cord once more, tossed and caught, 
and never once allowed to fall. The crowd that stood 
looking on shouted and exclaimed when some pleasing mark 
of skill was shown, and the spinners themselves were very 
proud of what they had done. While they were busy with 
the sport, two of the lookers-on began to dispute, becoming 
quite excited and angry. The two girls were a little anxious, 
for they did not know what might happen. 

'' Do not be frightened," said Mr. Scott, '' a Chinese 
quarrel is all threats and noise. The men do not often 
come to blows." And, true enough, as the angry men slowly 
approached each other, screaming and waving their arms, 
two other men ran after them, seized the fighters by the 
waist and held on, as if this were necessary to keep them 
from tearing each other to pieces. The men who were thus 
held shouted and struggled for a few minutes, and then each 
allowed himself to be led away by his friend. There had 



74 



been a great deal of screaming and threatening, but they 
had not come to blows and did not really mean to hurt 
each other. ''There!" said Mr. Scott, "that is the way 
the Chinese fight ! " 

'' And a very good way, I think," said Mrs. Spencer, '' if 
they must lose their tempers. They have had some hard 
words, but no one is much the worse for it." 

The platters and bowls, teapots and cups offered for sale 
were so pretty and cheap that Mary and Ellen could not keep 
from buying a few. They could not bar- 
gain for themselves, but they chose what 
they wanted and Ah Lum, who had come 
with them, offered what the articles were 
worth and paid for them. The 
money in use is called '' cash," 
ten of which make but a cent. 
The cash are round pieces of 
copper, with a square 
hole in the center, and 
they are strung on heavy 
cords. It is a hard mat- 
ter, sometimes, to carry 
enough cash for a long 
journey, a thousand of the pieces of copper being worth 
only one dollar in our money. It is a common thing to 
take the strings of cash in a cart by themselves, or with 
the other supplies. We think this a very strange custom, 
but the copper cash are worth so little that ten cents in 
Chinese money would fill a large pocketbook, and it is too 
heavy to carry in a purse. 

Thev looked over the collection of porcelain, which was 




Cash" 



75 



spread out on the ground, and Mary chose a large platter 
on which had been painted a big, dull-blue fish caught 
in a yellow net; on the edge of the platter were some 
round blue figures meant to represent waves. She also 
bought a bowl with a very fierce green dragon on it, one 
paw raised and his mouth open, showing his wicked forked 
tongue. Ellen selected for herself a cup covered with red 
lobsters, and a pretty teapot with vines and flowers in pink 
and blue. 

In the temple they found a great many artists painting 
paper scrolls, such as the girls had seen in the Japanese 
shops. The artists worked at wide wooden tables and 
painted with fine, pointed, camel's hair brushes, making 
every stroke very clear and clean, without blotting or 
having to rub it out. Mary thought that many of the 
pictures were, as she said, '' very mixed up.'' The figures 
were not well proportioned and they seemed to be walking 
in the air as well as on the ground, and those that should 
have been painted quite small, because they were meant 
to be far off, were as large as those that were in the fore- 
ground, for Chinese artists do not understand the principles 
of perspective. The favorite colors were deep blue, pink, 
green, black and vermilion, and there was no shading. 

The girls did not wish to buy any of the scrolls, but 
Mr. Scott who was a good judge of Chinese pictures gave 
Mrs. Spencer one which he said was a very fine piece of 
Chinese painting. It represented a Chinese lady of high 
rank in a gay dress with wide, flowing sleeves ; her hair 
beautifully dressed with flowers and jew^els, her eyes very 
narrow^ and slanting, with brows shaped like willow leaves, 
which the Chinese consider a mark of great beauty. The 



76 



finger nails were very long, to show that the lady had 
never worked. In one hand she held an arrow at which 
she was looking closely, and on her feet she wore small 
boots such as Chinese soldiers wore many years ago. " I 
think it is meant to be a portrait of ]\Ialan, a young girl 
who lived more than a thousand years ago/'' said Mr. 
Scott, ^' but w^hose story is known everywhere in China 
and has been made into a poem. Her father was a great 
general and was wounded in battle so that he could not 
march at the head of his troops. He had no sons to take 

his place, and when 
the brave daughter 
learned what had 
happened, she put on 
a suit of mail, mount- 
ed a horse and led the 
army to battle, and 
drove the enemy, who 
had come to burn the 
cities and kill the peo- 
ple, back to their own 
country. Her father had been taken to his home when 
he could no longer fight, and no one knew who the young 
general was that had taken his place. 

''' The Prince sent for Malan to come to the palace that he 
might reward her. He did not dream that the brave 
soldier was only a young girl. \\'hen she went into his 
presence and knelt before the throne, he wished to reward 
her with gifts and honors. She refused them all, and 
said that she prayed only to return to her aged father, 
who knew not where she had gone. 




Hand Showing the Long Finger Nails 



77 



''As the Prince desired to please her, he let her go. Those 
who went with her still thought that she was some brave 
young soldier that the gods had sent to help them, but at her 
father's door she uncovered her face, and they saw at once 
that it was Malan.'' 

The Spencers were quite tired with the morning's sight- 
seeing, and spent the afternoon quietly on the house boat, 
resting and reading. 

In the evening they took their place in a line of six 
other boats, and a steam launch towed them down the 
Canal into the Wusung, and so back to Shanghai. Mary 
and Ellen had never made so interesting a journey, and 
for a long time they talked of the odd sights they had seen. 



VIII. NORTH TO TAKU 

AFTER their return from Suchau, the weather had 
been very fine, for Shanghai is at its best in the 
autumn and the early winter months. Mr. Spencer found 
that he would have to go to Hangchau to be absent for 
som.e time, and he thought that while he was away it would 
be a good plan for Mrs. Spencer and the two girls to 
visit Peking. 

" Everything is so uncertain," he said, " and you should 
go while you can." Neither realized that it would be their 
last opportunity to see the Chinese capital as it then was. 
The Chinese in the North were beginning to hate the 
foreigners ; they believed that they wished to take their 



78 



country from them and divide it amongst themselves. 
They had ahxady given up large tracts along the seacoast, 
to the foreign powers, and also leased great ports to them 
at which their ships could lie at anchor. A society called 
Boxers had been formed to exterminate the foreigners. 
Even while Airs. Spencer and her daughters were in Peking, 
more and more Chinese were joining the Boxers who, some 
months later, were to march to Peking, killing and destroy- 
ing everything in their path. These Boxers were ignorant 
and cruel, and they did not know that many of the foreigners 
were friendly to their country, and wished to do all that 
they could to help the Chinese. But no one then knew 
what was to happen, and ]\Iary and Ellen were anxious 
to see Peking which had been an ancient city, long, long 
before Columbus discovered America. They got out their 
map to see where it was. On the map it seemed to be not 
far from Shanghai, but they learned, a little later, that 
it was four days' journey by sea to Taku. There they 
were to leave the ship for the launch which would carry 
them to Tongu should the tide be too low for the steamer 
to enter the Pei-ho River. At Tongu they were to go 
ashore and take the railway to Tientsin, where they changed 
for the last time to the main line to Peking. Much as the 
Chinese hate changes of any sort, they had been forced to 
allow the raihvay to be built and they had to endure having 
the graves of their ancestors removed, — a thing that they 
dread. 

The first part of the journey was to be made in a small 
steamer, the Shengking, 

It was rather crowded and not at all clean, although 
there were a great many Chinese servants on board. 



79 



They were to sail from the jetty, not far from the 
hotel, at noon. It had begun to rain in the night, and 
it was wet and dismal when they went on board. Mr. 
Spencer stayed with them until he was told to go ashore, 
as the gang plank was about to be raised. They had taken 
on a cargo of rice and crockery, for rice does not grow 
well in the north where it is too dry and cold. The coolies 
who were carrying the crates and sacks on board, where 
they were lowered into the hold or piled on the deck 
wherever they could be stowed, shouted and quarreled and 
were very noisy. They were so long at their work that it 
was almost four o'clock before they heard the sharp clang 
of the bell that warned the engineer to put on steam, 
and a moment later they were m.oving slowly down the 
Wusung among the shoe boats, sampans and junks. 

'' It is too bad that it is raining," said Mary. '' I should 
like to see the country when the sun is shining. It would 
not be so dismal ; but in the rain, the level fields and 
the graves are not cheerful." When they reached the 
bar they heard a voice chanting what seemed to be a very 
strange song. 

'' They are sounding," Mrs. Spencer told Ellen, and she 
explained how^ the line and lead are thrown over the side 
where the water is shallow, to find the depth, in order 
that the boat may not run aground. They had lost the 
tide, and had to wait until the turn, because not even the 
little Shengking could cross the Wusung bar at low tide. 
When the boat again started slowly, the sounding recom- 
menced which Mary and Ellen heard all through the night 
whenever they awoke. 

In the morning the wind was blowing hard and the 



8o 



sea was rough ; it was not at all comfortable on the deck, 
but they thought it better to sit in the open air than to 
remain inside. The Captain, who was very kind, had the 
sailors make a sort of tent out of pieces of sailcloth, which 
sheltered them from the gale, but the steamer rolled and 
pitched so that they could not walk about. The Captain 
had a little shaggy dog that followed him wherever he went, 
and the dog was miserable and tmhappy in the rough 
weather. 

'' He is not a good sailor/" said the Captain when ^lary 
tried to pet the dog, '' but he has gone to sea with me 
ever since he was a puppy. He is not friendly with stran- 
gers, although I do not think he would bite any one." His 
name was "' Peter," and ]\.Iary called him and offered him 
a part of her cake, but he only snift'ed at it, and would 
not touch it. The Captain took it from her and oft'ered 
it to him, and he snapped it up in a minute. " He is not 
polite, you see," said the Captain, " and he ought to be 
ashamed of himself.'' But Peter only wagged his stumpy 
tail and trotted after his master who was going up on the 
bridge where the little gray dog always kept watch, too. 

They had sailed on Tuesday, and on Thursday morning 
they anchored at Chefu, oft* a steep, rocky coast, which 
was high, and rugged, and where not so much as a bush 
could be seen. A few houses stood upon the hillside above 
the sea. One was a very large building which they learned 
was a school for foreign boys, where they are taught by 
missionaries, just as they would be here in our own schools 
at home. 

Mary and Ellen were much surprised to see the American 
flag flying over one of the houses, and they presently 



8i 



noticed that the EngHsh, German and other flags had been 
raised over other houses. 

'' Those are consulates/' said Mrs. Spencer. " Our 
country, and others, send out agents called consuls, who 
are allowed to live in certain places where they are received 
and protected by the country to which they are sent. It 
is their business to protect any of their own countrypeople 
who may come to the country, and to see that native 
merchants who buy and sell to merchants in the consul's 
own country deal honestly, and are in turn, fairly treated. 
The United States consuls are chosen by Congress. The 
consuls lead rather lonely lives, sometimes, when there is 
not much for them to do, but they are usually kind and 
helpful to any of their countrypeople who may come in 
their way." 

They were now at the entrance of the Gulf of Pechili 
into which two large rivers empty, the Hoang or Yellow 
river and the Pei-ho. They did not go ashore, for they were 
not to stop long in the port. A party of foreigners came 
on board at Chefu, and among them a lady with four 
children. The mother was French and the father a Chinese 
gentleman. The two elder children were quite pretty, and 
the fat, black-eyed baby was very good tempered ; the third, 
a little girl, who said she was five years old, was very 
naughty indeed. She pinched and kicked and would not 
obey either the amah, the Chinese nurse, or her mother, 
who spoke to her in French, and begged her to be good. 
The Captain brought them a small jar of candies which the 
naughty girl kept for herself. She took it from her brother 
and carried it about with her, and the brother and the elder 
sister were too gentle and polite to complain. 
krout's china — 6 



82 



. *' I think she will be an Empress some day/' said Mary. 

The storm was over and the sun was warm and bright. 
The Gulf was full of rocky islands upon which was neither 
grass nor shrub, yet on some of them were small villages, 
where, their mother told them, fishermen and their families 
lived. The Captain said that they would reach Taku early 
on Saturday mornmg, and would have breakfast at five 
o'clock. 

They made everything ready the evening before, and 
went to bed early. It was well that they did so, for at 
two o'clock an open barge came alongside into which the 
crew and the coolies, that came out with the barge, began 
to unload the cargo that was to be sent up to Tientsin 
by the Pei-ho. 

As they could not sleep on account of the noise, they 
got up and saw the sun rise. The sky was a strange dull 
blue, and the bay was as smooth as glass. Other small 
steamers, like the Shengking, lay at anchor, for here, as 
at the mouth of the Wusung, there is a bar which boats 
can not cross when the tide is out. 

They hurried through breakfast, and then went down the 
ladder into the steam barge which was to take them ashore. 
All their luggage was put into the barge with them. Had 
the weather been bad they would have been well drenched. 
Fortunately, the morning was clear and warm. The shore 
could not be sighted from the deck of the Shengking, 
but, in a fittle while, they saw a line of dull green close to 
the water, which became more and more distinct as they 
advanced. At the mouth of the Pei-ho, which was yellow 
and sluggish, like the Wusung, were the low mud walls 
of the two Chinese forts, which, before many months, were 



83 



to be battered down by the guns of the foreign warships. 
The houses inside the forts were of gray brick and were 
very comfortable. There the foreign HeaUh Officers and 
other officials live who are employed by the Chinese gov- 
ernment. 

The land along the sea was thickly grown with tall 
reeds, and the banks of the river were also shut in with 
reeds like a wall, so that nothing could be seen of the bare 



■^. 




View of the Taku Forts 

level land beyond. Two little Chinese warships were lying 
in the river. They were like the foreign ships that the 
girls had seen at Shanghai, painted snow white, with all 
their brass work shining brightly in the sun. The Chinese 
did not build the ships, which were called torpedo boats, 
but had bought them in foreign countries. They could see 
the Chinese sailors on the deck quite plainly as their lum- 
bering barge steamed past. They wore uniforms of white 



84 



duck, and caps such as sailors wear, and their queues were 
wound round their heads so as to be out of the way. 

The passengers from the Shengking were to land at 
Tongu, which is up the river some distance from Taku. Alary 
and Ellen thought that they had never seen such a dreary 
place. The houses were all of mud, with windows in 
which sheets of paper were used instead of glass. At the 
ends of the streets were curtains of matting which were 
let down at night, so that robbers might not get in. 

'' I should think almost any sort of a robber could break 
through that curtain,'' said Mary, " though it may be 
stronger than it appears to be.'' Men with bird cages in 
their hands walked along the bank with a quick, mincing 
step, turning out their toes. Women in blue and green 
dresses gossiped at the doors. On one roof a tall pole had 
been raised and to this had been fastened a bunch of dried 
grass. This was to show that the people who lived in 
the house had something to sell, — fowls, grain, eggs or 
vegetables. 

The girls learned that no one must ask to buy except 
from dealers. If a man offers, of his own accord, to buy 
a horse or a mule from a Chinese farmer, the poor farmer 
will accept the price named, no matter how little, for he 
believes that if he does not sell the animal it will surely 
die within the year. Dishonest foreigners often take advan- 
tage of this ignorance, and get a farmer's horses away from 
him, although he does not wish in the least to sell them. 

There was no landing stage at Tongu, and they climbed 
out of the barge upon some loose boards laid across two 
old sampans, which had been dragged near the shore and 
made fast. 



85 



They had been very anxious for fear they should miss the 
train, as there was but one daily to Peking. There was 
no place where they could have stayed in Tongu, and they 
were very glad, indeed, when they saw the smoke of the 
engine at the station, which was not far away. 

The moment they stepped ashore a crowd of coolies seized 
their bags and parcels and would have trotted off with 
them, had they not been driven away by a gentleman whom 
they had met in the boat and who could talk to the Chinese 
in their own language. He engaged half a dozen men, 
who tied up the trunks with stout rope, swung them on 
heavy bamboo poles and trotted toward the station. Mrs. 
Spencer, their friend, and the two girls followed. 

In the village street they saw a man roasting chestnuts 
in a great kettle filled with burning hot sand. The chestnuts 
were stirred constantly and the hot sand roasted them a 
deep, even brown. 



IX. A CHINESE RAILROAD 

THE railway station at Tongu is of gray brick, very much 
like an ordinary country station in A«merica. But 
Mary and Ellen had never seen so odd a train nor so curious 
a lot of passengers. Many of the cars were like those that 
are used in our own country for hauling gravel, and in these 
were crowded not only men, women and children, but pigs, 
donkeys and large, stout mules which the Chinese value much 
m.ore than horses. A great many of the people, both men 
and women, who were dressed in clothes of blue cotton, were 



86 



eating rice and drinking tea. Nearly all were bareheaded, 
and, when they liked, shaded their eyes with paper fans. 
When the fans were not being used they were thrust into 
the neck of the gown, one end showing above the collar. 

There were also rough box cars, provided with seats 
where Chinese of the better class sat by themselves. The 
seats were of wood like those in American street cars, and 
here, too, the people were eating and drinking at a great 
rate. 

Their friend put Mrs. Spencer and her daughters in 
the '' First Class Carriage,'' which was plainly marked, 



Chinese Railway Train 

both in English and Chinese. It was not at all comfortable. 
The seats had no cushions and the trunks and bags were 
brought in, also, and crowded into the spaces between the 
seats. There were no cushions, because the Chinese can 
not be taught neatness, and scatter their food over every- 
thing, although, in this carriage, only the rich merchants 
and officials traveled. The windows were so high that 
nothing could be seen when one sat down, so Mary and 



87 



Eilen stood and looked out at the crowds on the broad 
platform. Men were selling hot chestnuts, slices of red 
and bright orange-colored watermelon, which the Chinese 
can buy for a '' cash '' each, but which cost the foreigners 
much more. Several kinds of toys were also offered for 
sale, the oddest of which were hideous spotted pigs of 
clay, with long noses and flapping ears. Two pretty Chinese 
ladies dressed in blue satin, with large earrings set with 
pearls, and flowers and gilt pins in their hair, quarreled 
loudly with the chestnut vender over the price he had made 
them pay. One of them shook her umbrella out of the 
window at him, and shouted after him as he walked away. 

'' I am glad that you can not understand what they say," 
said their friend, '' for, while Chinese ladies appear modest 
and gentle, they often use very bad language, and quarrel 
a great deal amongst themselves.'' 

When the vender was out of hearing the two ladies sat 
down again, and began to giggle and crunch chestnuts like 
a pair of hungry squirrels. They threw the shells all about 
them, and did not seem to see or care what a litter they 
made. 

As in Yokohama, newsboys ran up and down the plat- 
form selling newspapers printed in Chinese, some of which 
had very queer pictures. A great many of the Chinese do 
not like the newspapers and do not want the people to read 
them, and there are not so many in China as there once were. 

Two years before, the young Emperor had been driven 
from the throne and had been shut up in one of the palaces 
because he wished to change the laws, found schools like 
our own and make other improvements. Scores of the 
newspapers which were being printed with his consent, were 



88 



then discontinued. None was allowed to appear that did 
not speak well of the Empress Dowager who had imprisoned 
the Emperor, and approve what she had done. 

The engineer, the fireman, and the conductor or guard 
on the train, were all Chinese, and knew their business very 
well. The engineer was proud of his engine, and smiled 
at the foreigners from his cab window, as though he wished 
them to see what a clever man he was — as well-trained and 
able to manage an engine as any foreigner could be. He 
put his hand upon the throttle, the engine gave a shrill 
whistle that could be heard far down the river, and the 
long train pulled slowly out of the station, leaving the 
idlers on the platform gaping after it, as long as it was in 
sight. 

All around Tongu are burial places, just as they are 
to be found around nearly all towns and villages in Northern 
China. 

Long after they had gone back to Shanghai the girls re- 
membered the railroad, the cars, the bridges and the long 
line of telegraph poles beside the track, for the next summer 
it was all torn up and ruined by the Boxers. The Boxers had 
told the ignorant, common people that the men who built the 
railroad had killed little children and placed their bodies 
under the ties. It would have been easy for them to 
dig up the earth and find for themselves that this was 
not true; but they did not think it worth while, or were 
perhaps afraid. On all the telegraph poles were notices in 
Chmese warning the people not to tamper with them, for 
the common people hate the telegraph even worse than 
the railway. They can and do use the trains, however, 
which they have found far better in every way than their 



89 



slow-moving carts and litters. But they can not understand 
the telegraph at all; they believe that evil spirits carry the 
messages and that they will never have any luck so long 
as the poles remain. 

At one station Mary and Ellen saw for the first time a 
camel, which a small boy was leading. The girls did not 
know before that camels are used a great deal by the people 




Burial Places 
in Northern China ; and that they graze by thousands on 
the plains, where the]^ are turned loose to fatten and to 
get their new coats of thick hair for the winter, after 
shedding their old coats in the early summer. The hair is 
sold and sent to Germany, where fine, silky material for 
ladies' dresses is made of it. 

The camel which they saw was terribly frightened by the 
train, and tried to get away ; but the boy held it fast by the 



90 



halter. It did not like the noisy, puffing engine and the 
rattling cars, so crowded with people, and Mary said that 
she did not wonder at this. 

At last the boy, who was not large, stood on his tiptoes 
and placed his hands over the earners eyes. After that it 
was more quiet, but camels have a very keen sense of 
smell, and, like the dog that they had seen on the house 
boat journey, can detect the approach of men, or of animals, 
long before they can see them. 




Pack Camels 
At another station they saw a very shocking sight, which 
they tried to forget, but which they could not put out of 
their minds for a long time. A maa lay dead in a ditch by 
the side of the railway line; his face was covered, but 
the body was stretched out quite cold and rigid. He had 
been run over and killed, and no one could take the body 
away until the magistrate came and looked at it, and 
decided how the man had lost his life! Everyone knew 
already, but the magistrate thought, no doubt, that he had 



91 



more important matters to attend to first, and would not 
come until he felt like it. They learned that the body had 
lain where they saw it for four days, but that is not an 
uncommon thing in China. With thousands of graves on 
every hand, the people are used to death, which they do 
not much fear, although they have a dread of ghosts. 
Nothing matters very much since, for millions of these 
wretched people, it is hard to get bread enough to keep 
them alive. Whatever happens, they say '' Maskee," which 
means '' it does not matter,'' and they do not try to better 
their lot. 

The train moved slowly over the yellow plain, and the 
sky was even a duller blue than at Tongu ; this was because 
of the dust storms which are common in this part of the 
country. The winds blow nearly all the year round, and 
in the long droughts volumes of dust are carried high in 
the air. The sky grows more and more yellow, and some- 
times the dust is so thick that the sun is hidden, or is so 
obscured that it is like a dull, brazen ball. Then, although 
doors and windows are kept tightly closed, the dust blows 
in at every crack and cranny, even getting into closets and 
bureau drawers in the foreign houses. It stings and parches 
the skin, and the hair becomes dry and harsh and snaps and 
flies when it is brushed. 

They decided not to stop in Tientsin on the way to 
Peking, but to make the visit when they came back, so they 
left the train when they arrived at the Tientsin station 
and took the Peking express which they found waiting 
on another line near by. It was a better train in every way 
than the one which they had quitted. They took a '' mail 
carriage '' which was like a small stateroom, opening into 



92 



a passage at one side which connected with the other 
carriage in front and with a large saloon which was free 
to all. 

They had some nice tea with the sandwiches which had 
been put up for them on the steamer, and some hot, hard- 
boiled eggs which they found could generally be bought on 
this Chinese train. The engineer and stoker on the engine 
of the Peking express were also Chinese, and so was the 
conductor who took their tickets, and the man who brought 
their tea. He also brought them some small, juicy pears 
which he said were Peking pears, for he spoke English quite 
well. 

'' No one says Pek/n/' said Mary. 

''Because here the name is pronounced as it should be," 
her motlier replied. 

"It is often spelled without the g in books and news- 
papers/' she explained, "but it is not correct. 'King' is 
a Chinese word meaning ' capital ' ; ' Peking ' means 
' Northern Capital ' ; ' Chungking ' is ' Western Capital ' 
and Nanking means ' Southern Capital.' Nanking was the 
capital of the empire until the ]\Ianchus. to which the family 
of the young Emperor Kuang Hsu belongs, conquered the 
Chinese. They then moved the capital to Peking. It is a 
very, very old city, and stood where it is to-day when there 
was not a white man in our country — long, indeed, before 
our country was dreamed of by the people of Europe. 
It is very different from other Chinese cities,'' ^Irs. Spencer 
went on, " for the streets are almost all wide and straight, 
and are laid out at right angles ; but they are not paved 
and are very dirty, — ankle-deep with dust in the summer^ 
and almost impassable with mud when it rains. 



93 



" The houses in Peking are low, enclosed with walls 
around an inner court, so that nothing can be seen of the 
interior. The Chinese are forced to live in the southern 
part of Peking, and here they have fine shops and carry 
on business as industriously as they do everywhere. Be- 
yond the Chinese city is the Tartar city in which the Tartars 
live. They are very much like the Chinese, but have more 
authority and are favored by the Empress Dowager. 




The Forbidden City 

'' A straight wall built across the Chinese city from one 
side to the other, joining the outer w^all, which entirely 
surrounds Peking, separates the Chinese from the Tartar 
city. Within the Tartar city is the Imperial City. Here 
the noble Manchus live, their houses roofed with bright 
green tiles ; and in the very center is the so-called ' For- 
bidden City/ in w^hich are the fine gardens and palaces 
of the Emperor and the Empress Dowager. Their palaces 



94 



are roofed with deep yellow tiles, which shine like gold 
among the trees that grow in the courts. Each city has 
its own wall pierced with gates. The Emperor and the 
Empress Dowager rarely leave their palaces in the Forbidden 
City. Before the Emperor was imprisoned, which was 
in the month of September, 1898, he Avent to the temples 
at certain seasons to offer thanksgivings to the gods,, 
or to pray for rain. \Mien he did so. the people were 
commanded to stay within their houses that they might 
not see him, for his person is considered sacred. A company 
of the very highest princes in the land went with him. 
The streets through which he had to pass were strewn 
with fresh yellow earth upon which no foot had trodden, 
and all the cross streets were carefully shut out by curtains 
of line yellow m.atting. Should any one have been detected 
trying to catch sight of the Emperor he would have been 
put to death instantly." 



X. PEKING 

IT was almost two o'clock in the afternoon and ]\Iary and 
Ellen were very tired. They had been up at daylight 
and had had no rest since they left their berths on the 
steamer. The excitement of new scenes and adventures had 
occupied them, and they did not realize how quickly the 
time had passed. 

The country between Tientsin and Peking is like that 
around Shanghai, except that in the south they had seen 



95 



green rice fields. Here were the same level plains, covered 
with scattered graves. The crops had all been gathered, 
and the fields where the tall millet grows in summer and 
ripens in the early autumn had been stripped bare. The 
stalks had been cut to within a foot of the ground and these 
women were digging with short, sharp hoes, shaking the 
earth from the dry roots and tying them in bundles. The 
millet roots, Mrs. Spencer said, were to be used for fuel. 

They saw but one pretty house, and that stood near the 
roadside in a garden where chrysanthemums and marigolds 
were blooming in long rows. Pumpkin seeds, of which the 
Chinese are very fond, were spread out on the flat roof 
to dry, and festoons of pumpkin were hung above the door, 
also drying, to be used in the winter when vegetables are 
scarce. 

After a while, they saw a long, indistinct line, which 
stretched far away, fading in the distance ; it semed to rise 
from the ground like a grayish-brown cloud. ^' It is the 
outer wall of Peking,'' said Mrs. Spencer, and Mary and 
Ellen rose, stood on tiptoe and gazed through the window 
for a long time, trying to realize that they were really in 
sight of the Chinese capital. 

To west and north a rugged mountain chain appeared 
with sharp peaks, the slopes taking on a hundred lovely 
tints of pearl and pink and gray in the afternoon light. 
They were the Western Hills, where the foreigners go 
in summer to escape the great heat and the dust and 
stench of Peking. It was still more strange, when the train 
finally halted at the long platform, to see the name of the 
station, ''Peking/' in English; and the station itself was 
much more American than Chinese. All the passengers 



96 



hurried from the train, the Chinese laughing and talking 
in their high, shrill voices, and the foreigners, for there 
were many foreigners besides themselves, anxious to reach 
their homes, or the hotel where they Vv'ere to stay. 

Air. Spencer had telegraphed for rooms, just as he would 
have done at home, and a fat, jolly Chinese from the hotel 
was Vv'aiting for them. Their luggage was sorted out and 




Railroad Station at Peking 

piled into carts, then the compradore, or steward, led the 
way to the spick and span new electric tram car. which 
whirled them to the city gates in a few minutes. On 
the opposite side of the road they saw more queer sights, — 
strings of camels loaded with bales and sacks, the 
leader wearing around his neck a bell from which hung 
a long tassel of crimson silk. " Cling-clang," " Cling- 
clang " the bell chimed, keeping time to the camel's soft 
tread. The animals like the sound, and followed lazilv, 



97 



with half-closed eyes, their jaws moving from side to 
side in a very strange fashion as they munched their cuds. 

There were processions of carts, big, unwieldly wagons 
drawn by mules, horses and even cows, all harnessed 
together in a perfect net-work of ropes. In the midst of 
this motley procession a young Chinese rode swiftly on 
a bicycle, bare-headed in the blazing sun, his queue stream- 
ing out behind him almost in a straight line. 

The motorman and the conductor on the electric car 
were both Chinese, and, like the engineer on the train, 
were proud of their skill in managing the wonderful foreign 
tram. When the line was first opened they made some 
funny mistakes. All the cars were collected at one end of 
the line and were then sent back to the station, the cars 
following one behind the other. People who wanted to 
ride had to wait for them to return, sometimes an hour 
or more. 

At the city gate the compr adore hired jinrikishas which 
had just been brought to Peking, but where they could be 
used only on a few streets, all the others being too rough 
and full of ruts. 

The rikisha men ran as fast as they could along the 
road through the Chinese city. It had once been well paved 
with great blocks of stone, many of which, however, had 
been displaced or broken, and others carried away, leaving 
yawning holes into which the wheels sank and bounced 
out again. It was hard work to keep one's seat, and they 
held fast to the little carriage. On either side of the road 
were wide spaces, bare and brown, like the fields, where 
there were herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats that 
were to be sold. People walked to and fro in narrow paths 
krout's china — 7 



98 



close to the wall. Near the gate of the Chinese city, opening 
into the Tartar city, were hnndreds of shops with people 
buying and selling, and the restaurants surrounded with 
patrons, as they had seen them in Shanghai and Suchau. 

Here in the north, the men were tall' and strong, their 
skin was darker and their eyes were not so slanting as those 
that they had seen farther south. But they were not quite 
so good-natured, and two or three scowled at them angrily. 

At one place a bridge crossed a stagnant canal. Mary and 

Ellen noticed that it was crowded with people who wore 

filthy, tattered clothes, and who seemed never to have had 

a bath in all their lives ; their hands and faces were grimy, 

and their hair tangled and matted with dust. This was 

unusual, for a Chinese, who will never go without shoes 

if he can help it, is also careful to keep his queue neatly 

braided. But this was the Beggar's Bridge, where people 

}vho are allowed to beg, as a means of getting their living, 

are always to be seen, when they are not following their 

trade. Each begger has a license to beg, for which he pays, 

just as men pay for a license to sell various things in our 

own country. The beggar goes from shop to shop and 

the merchants are forced to give him a few '' cash " to get 

rid of him. If they refuse, the beggar goes away and 

comes back with a crowd of his beggar friends and they 

crowd about the merchant's shop until they are all paid. 

The merchants have found by experience that it is better to 

give one beggar what he asks rather than to pay so many. 

No one seems able to drive them away, and they hang about, 

rude and noisy, keeping customers out of the shop, until 

they get what they demand. 

The streets m the Tartar city are rough causeways, with 



99 



deep ditches on either side in which filthy water collects 
after the rains. The shops open upon the streets, and in 
front is a space like a broad sidewalk for people who go 
on foot; on the farther side of this space are small booths 
roughly patched together, some of them roofed only with 
canvas. These booths stand next to the street, or along 
the edge of the deep ditch which Tiad been left from digging 




Street in Peking 



out the earth to repair the narrow track where two carts 
can scarcely pass, and which is continually worn away 
by the heavy wheels. The shop fronts are of richly carved 
wood which had been thickly gilded, but the sun and 
rain have ruined the gilding, and it has never been re- 
newed. The Chinese are satisfied if what they have is fresh 
and bright for a little while. It never occurs to them 

that anything which falls into decay can ever be repaired 

LofC. 



lOO 



and made as good as new. This is true, not only of 
the gilded shop fronts, but of the roads and temples and 
the fine marble bridges which one of the Emperors had 
built across the northern rivers. Over the door of some of 
the shops are dragon's heads on tall poles, with long spiral 
springs of gilt wire, each tipped with an acorn, sprouting 




American Legation 

from the nostrils, which tilt and bend continually in the 
wind. 

They entered the beautiful Ha-ta-men. The name which 
was translated for them means " The Gate of Sublime 
Learning." They turned into what is known as Legation 
Street, on which all the foreign ^Ministers live, that is, 
officers of a higher class than consuls who are sent to 
Peking to look after the interests of their governments. 



lOI 



Each legation stands in its own compound, inclosed in a 
solid wall, entered through a gate where a gate keeper 
is always on duty. Over each house, on Sunday, the flag 
of the country which the legation represents, is raised, and 
Mary and Ellen soon learned to know the different flags 
quite well. They admired the snow-white standard of Japan 
with its big round Sun in the center — to represent the 
'' Land of the Rising Sun," as Japan calls herself. 




Chinese Sawyers 

The streets of the Tartar city are as busy and crowded 
as those of the Chinese city, but along Legation Street 
there are no shops. They saw men sawing great beams of 
wood by the wayside, the beam being tilted on end and 
sawed into strips, or boards. Two men were required to 
saw the beam. Boards have been sawed by hand in this 
way for ages in China, and will be for ages to come, if the 



I02 



people have their way. It is slow and tedious, as is most 
work done in China, but more people are thus employed, 
and there are work and wages for them, which would 
not be the case if mills were put up everywhere. Wood 
is very costly, for it must be brought from a long dis- 
tance, and it is sold by weight. No one would think of 
using wood for fuel in China, where hardly enough is sup- 
plied for doors and window frames, furniture and coffins. 
The houses, as Mary and Ellen already knew, are roofed 
with tiles, and the floors are paved with brick or stone, 
even in the palaces. Only foreign houses, of which there 
are very few, have wooden floors and staircases. 

They were rather surprised when the rikisha man suddenly 
turned in at a narrow, arched gateway over which they 
read : " Hotel de Peking.'' There was no sign of a hotel 
from outside, and they were taken along a paved passage- 
way, covered with a trellis over which vines had been 
trained, which made a thick, pleasant shade. It was cool 
and quiet after the noisy, dusty streets, and Mrs. Spencer 
gave a sigh of relief when she stepped out of the jinrikisha 
and knew that they were at their journey's end. 

Their room was at the rear of the building, and opened 
into the court where there were more shady arbors, and 
flowers growing in porcelain pots ; but not a blade of grass 
to be seen anywhere. 

The room was clean and prettily furnished, and in a 
little while tea was brought which they were very glad 
to have. During the night, when Mary. awoke, she could 
not at all realize where she was. She heard a strange sound 
— "rat, tat, tat /a//' '^ rat-/aMat-fa^" that grew louder as 
it approached, was repeated after a little pause, and then 



I03 



died away in the distance. She learned that this was 
a poHceman going his rounds ; the noise was made by 
beating upon, a piece of hollow wood, for Chinese police- 
men are not expected to capture thieves and evil doers, but 
only to scare them away, and the loud noise warns them 
when the policeman is coming. Mary thought this was 
certainly a safe way for both the policeman and the thief, 
who, if they never meet, can not hurt each other. She 
learned, too, that the police are able to pay men not to break 
into houses, which they do not molest as long as the pay 
continues. The Chinese think .this a very good and wise 
plan as it saves a great deal of trouble. 



XL IN AND AROUND PEKING 

THERE are few places where one can walk in Peking. 
The streets are dirty and dusty and the crowds that 
usually follow foreigners, or gather around them, are not 
always polite. '' They are no worse,'' said Mrs. Spencer, 
'' than ignorant people in other countries, who would be 
just as curious about Chinese women as these people are 
about foreigners. I think that they are better than one 
might expect to find them, when we remember how badly 
they have been treated. Even here, in their own land, 
foreigners are rude and cruel to them, and take advantage 
of them in many ways. We expect them to be kind and 
civil to us, while we treat them unjustly and have no regard 
for their feelings. The Chinese are taught from childhood," 



104 



she said, '' to treat their elders and their superiors with great 
reverence. The Emperor's teacher can sit in his presence, 
which not even the highest nobles can do, because the 
teacher ranks next to the parent. Their feelings are easily 
wounded and they never forget a slight. I once saw a 
Chinese who had been engaged by an American family 
to wait at table; he was very much frightened and did 
not know the use of the various kinds of spoons, knives 
and forks. He made mistakes at which they laughed and 
he was so much ashamed that he left the house and never 
went back again, — not even for the wages that the people 
owed him. He had 'lost face,' as the Chinese say; that 
is, he had been mortified and shamed in public and never 
wanted to see the family again.'' 

In front of the hotel were carts, donkeys and jinrikishas 
which could be hired, but they learned that it was not the 
custom to ride the donkeys inside the walls, although they 
could do so outside the gates. They must go about the 
city either in a cart, a jinrikisha, or a litter. 

On Sunday they went to a Mission Church where nearly 
all the congregation w^ere Chinese. The men sat on one 
side of the church and the women and girls on the other. 
They were much cleaner than most Chinese, and their faces 
were brighter and more intelligent. This was especially 
true of the women, who, in Chinese families, except a few 
of the highest class, are taught very little. The hymns 
and the lessons were all in Chinese, and a sermon in the 
same language was preached by a young Chinese priest. 
The congregation was very quiet and listened closely. They 
sang very sweetly, the air only, for it is hard to teach 
them the different parts. Mary was much surprised that 



I05 



they could sing at all, for Chinese music is so strange and 
discordant she did not suppose that they could learn even 
simple foreign airs. When the service was over, the mis- 
sionaries who were there with their pupils came up and 
shook hands with the foreign strangers. They invited 




Woman of the Wealthy Class 

them to the Mission residence and asked them to visit the 
schools, which Mrs. Spencer said they would do. 

Mary and Ellen had been taught to consider Sunday as 
a day of rest and they could not get used to the Chinese 



io6 



Sunday which was Hke any other day in the week, — the 
shops all open, people buying and selling, the sawyers sawing 
the great beams of wood, and the caravans of camels filing 
in and out of the Ha-ta-men. Mrs. Spencer told them 
that there were certain feast days when people do not 
work, and, no matter how poor they are, almost everyone 
takes a holiday at the Chinese New Year. It does not 
come at the time we celebrate our New Year, but more 
than a month later, for the Chinese year is not divided 
like our own. 

'' It is a time of great rejoicing," said Mrs. Spencer. 
" Every man tries then to pay his debts, and it is a great 
disgrace not to do so. The shops are closed except those 
where food is sold, and but few of these are open. Everyone 
wears new clothes; the rich have coats and gowns of silk 
and satin lined with costly sable, and the poor, garments of 
blue cotton, thickly wadded. If a man is too poor to 
buy clothes, he hires them for the fortnight during which 
the New Year is celebrated, and, at the end of the fortnight, 
takes them back to the shop where he got them. Gifts are 
exchanged as we exchange them at Christmas, and in nearly 
every house much better food is eaten than at ordinary times. 
The people of rank and wealth give feasts that cost large 
sums of money, at which all sorts of Chinese dainties, 
which we would not think fit to eat at all, are served, — 
sea slugs, bird's nest soup, silkworms fried in oil, and other 
things. The poor treat themselves to a bit of meat 
which they rarely taste at any other time, — a fowl, a duck 
or a few eggs ; this, with plenty of vegetables, soup and 
tea is for them a feast indeed. 

" There are manv odd customs connected with the New 



I07 



Year ; great quantities of firecrackers are set off, the courts 
and houses are brightly Hghted with Chinese lanterns, and 
fresh gate gods are pasted on the gates at the front of the 
court. The pictures of these gods can be bought only at 
the New Year. One picture is of the god who, they think, 
sends them good luck; the other is of the wicked god, 
who scowls, and stamps his foot and brandishes a terrible 
sword. They do not like this god, but they are afraid not 
to paste his picture on the door, for fear he may feel slighted 
and do them harm; just as they put the mischievous gods 
on the altars in the temple, as you saw them at Modo and 
Suchau. 

'' One of the strangest of their customs is the burning 
of the little kitchen god on New Year's eve. Every Chinese 
cook, who has not been taught better, has hanging up in 
his kitchen a picture of this little kitchen god who is thought 
to befriend him and help him with his cooking, sending 
him ' good luck ' with his pies and puddings. On the 
eve of the New Year the little kitchen god's mouth is 
smeared with treacle, of which he is supposed to be very 
fond, and he is then solemnly burned. When he is burned 
they believe he goes straight to Heaven, and, because- his 
mouth has been sweetened with the treacle, he will tell no 
tales of the naughty things the cook may have done, — how 
he may have helped himself to his master's white bread 
or coffee, or ham, which all Chinese cooks like very much. 
It is hard to keep them from pilfering. They seem to 
think that they have a right to small things of this sort, 
when they would not touch a piece of jewelry or money. 

" When the kitchen god has been in heaven for one 
week they suppose he returns, — although they have only 



io8 

pasted on the wall a fresh picture which they themselves 
have boug"ht. While the kitchen god is in heaven the 
-bad cook thinks that he may do as he likes. There is 
no one to watch and tell tales, and the mistress is sometimes 
glad when a new picture is pasted up. Chinese children 
who are sent to foreign schools learn to laugh at these 
stories, which makes the priests very angry.'' 

While the}^ were coming away from the church they 
heard soft, strange music which came from far above their 
heads. It rose and swelled and died away, like the notes of 
an organ. They could see nothing but great flocks of 
white and blue pigeons, wheeling and soaring in the sun- 
shine. The compradore told them, when they spoke to 
him about it, that what they had heard were pigeon whistles. 
The Chinese dearly love singing birds, and boys and men 
— even very old men — go about the streets of Peking 
carrying a pet bird tethered with a thread to a forked 
stick, or in cages, as they had seen them first at Tongu. 
There are not many singing birds in the fields near Peking, 
probably because of the crows, of which there are thousands, 
and which destroy the eggs and young of other birds ; 
so the Chinese make whistles of bamboo, which they fasten 
among the feathers of the pigeons' tails and then turn 
them loose. As they fly swiftly, wheeling and soaring, the 
rushing wind blows through the little pipes fastened in 
their feathers, sending out the lovely sounds the girls had 
heard. The Chinese have given them the name of " Houris 
of the Sky." Houris are thought by the Chinese to be 
beautiful beings that dwell in the Chinese Paradise, as 
we think of angels dwelling in Heaven. 

The pigeons themselves appear to be much pleased with 



log 



the music, and fly swiftly, many in a flock, around and 
around, to and fro, now brushing the low roofs with 
their wings, now soaring away again until they are almost 
lost among the clouds. The music rises and swells, and 
the little children in the courts of the city look up at them 
and listen with delight. 

The week after they arrived in Peking they drove about 
a great deal, although the heavy carts, 'with their big 
w^heels, the bed resting upon the axle, with no springs to 
soften the jolting when they sank into ruts and holes, were 
certainly not comfortable. Had there been sidewalks Mary 
and Ellen would much have preferred to walk, but there 
were none. 

They found that in Peking whole streets have been set 
apart for shops in which but one kind of goods can be 
bought, such as books, shoes or crockery. Near the Ha- 
ta-men they saw a booth covered with a horrid patchwork 
— whole garments, frocks and trousers — stitched upon 
canvas. Inside the booth two men were standing behind 
a table heaped with piles of blue cotton garments, and 
they sang, in a monotonous nasal tone, a song that went 
on and on and on ; one man sang a line, and the other 
replied, and there was scarcely time to breathe between 
the lines. A lady, Mrs. CHfiford, who was with them 
and understood Chinese, said that they were singing of 
the second-hand clothes that they were trying to sell. They 
could hear the song a long distance down the street. 

They noticed, in other places, that the streets were lined 
with little temporary stalls where men were selling every 
imaginable kind of article from a fried fish to a piece of 
jewelry. 



no 



5^ ^ 



Chinese Writing 



Innumerable peddlers were 
making their way here and there 
through the crowd, balancing 
large trays on which wxre dis- 
played various articles for sale. 
Each man had his own peculiar 
cry to draw attention to his 
wares. 

Many foot passengers were 
walking up and down, stopping 
at the different booths, — -bar- 
gaining, selling, chattering, — or 
eating at tables set out in the 
open street. It was a very lively 
scene, and. Mary and Ellen 
gazed about them with great 
curiosity. 

A young man, bare - headed 
and dressed in a very elegant 
blue silk frock, passed them 
rolling rapidly about in his long 
slender fingers a heavy metal 
ball. '' That is a public writer,'' 
said Mrs. Clift'ord. '' Chinese 
characters are very difficult 
to write. There are so many 
strokes, fine and heavy, with 
little dots and dashes, that 
it requires a very steady, flex- 
ible hand to make them properly. 
Every line that is left out, or 



Ill 





stroke added, changes the meaning of the character — a 
single one of which may be a whole sentence. So, to keep 
the lingers supple, the public writers carry those heavy balls 
about with them, rolling them constantly that their hand 
may not become stiff, just as a piano player must practice 

his exercises every day. 
Not far from the Ha- 
ta-men they saw an old 
man in a booth, with an 
audience of men and 
boys on benches in front 
of him. He was talking 
to them, ]\Iary supposed, 
making very graceful 
gestures, and they were 
listening very closely, so 
as not to lose a word. 
The man was a story- 
teller, and amused the 
crowds who gathered to 
hear him, with old tales 
and legends of China — 
the adventures of heroes, 
princes and princesses, 
that had been handed 
down for generations, 
and were know^n as our fairy stories are known to chil- 
dren everywhere. Each person in the audience paid a 
small sum for the privilege of listening. The Chinese never 
get tired of hearing these legends, although they know 
them by heart. It is a countrv where thev are not continu- 




A Public Speaker 



112 



ally asking for something new, but are still pleased and 
content with that which pleased their fathers and grand- 
fathers before them. 

No ladies were seen on foot; all rode in carts with the 
driver sitting on one shaft, where Chinese drivers are 
expected to sit, and a woman servant, without which no 
Chinese lady ever goes from home, perched upon the other. 
The ladies were beautifully dressed in embroidered silk, 

their faces powdered to 
^^^^^^LQ ^^^"^^ K snowy whiteness, the lips 

and cheeks painted with 
vermilion. The hair was 
arranged on a narrow 
board at the back of the 
Peking Cart head, projecting several 

inches on either side, and decorated with many bright 
artificial flowers and butterflies. They were Manchu ladies 
— the race to which the Empress Dowager belongs — and 
their feet had never been bound. 

Mary and Ellen did not know what this meant, and ques- 
tioned their mother about it. '' I will tell you about it 
later on," said their mother. 




XII. CHINESE GIRLS 



WHEN they had washed the dust from their hands and 
faces, and had rested a little while, Mary reminded 
her mother that she had promised to tell them about Chinese 
girls whose feet had been '' bound," or dwarfed and crippled 
so that it was hard for them to walk. 



113 



" What is called foot-binding is not practiced by all people 
who live in China," said Mrs. Spencer, "' although in our 
country many think that there are none whose feet are 
of the natural shape or size; while others suppose that 
only the feet of women of good families are bound; both 
opinions are wrong. There are several provinces where 
the feet of little girls remain as nature made them, and 
Manchu w^omen, high and low, have large feet. The Em- 
press Dowager and the ladies of her household have not 





Chinese Little Feet, Showing Method of Binding 

suffered from this foolish and cruel custom. The practice 
is so old that no one can tell when or how it began. The 
Chinese of all classes, even those that work at hard labor 
in the fields, such as boatmen and coolies, have small, slim 
hands and feet. They wear no stockings — only a sock 
made of cotton cloth, or bands of cloth in which the feet are 
snugly wrapped. It is thought by some that foot binding 
may have begun by gradually tightening the cotton band- 
ages, until the small feet of the women became still more 
tiny. The Chinese admire these dwarfed feet very much 



114 

indeed, and compare them to golden lilies, and the tottering 
gait with which * bound-foot ' women move about, to the 
swaying of lilies upon their stems. 

'' Chinese parents desire sons ; they do not wish daughters 
who can earn little, for whom it is hard for the poor to 
provide, and who, when the parents die, can not worship 
at their graves, or make offerings to their spirits — a neglect 
that they believe makes the spirits very angry and unhappy. 

** Should there be a family of boys, then one daughter is 
welcome, and is petted and indulged; but this does not 
happen very often. In the families of the more intelligent 
and well-to-do, little girls are taught in the schools or by 
tutors at home, until they are ten years old, and, after that, 
they must study separately. There have been a few clever 
women writers among the Chinese — poets and writers of 
history. If the family is poor, only one of the daughters 
will have her feet bound, for, though she can and does 
work, she cannot work so well as her sisters who are not 
crippled. The binding begins at the age of four or five — 
sometimes not until the little girl is eight years old. The 
child sulicrs terribly and often cries day and night, and 
must be shut up in some place in the court where the family 
can not hear her. Her parents may pity her, but they will 
not unloose the strong bandages that cause all the pain. 
Perhaps you have worn boots that did not fit well, that were 
too narrow or too short, or that you may have out-grown, 
and you know how they hurt and how glad you were to take 
them ofT. You can realize, then, the torture that poor little 
girls in China suffer while the bandaging goes on which 
causes the foot to wither and shrivel until it scarcely looks 
like the foot of a human being. The toes are bent under 



115 



the arch of the instep, protruding at the side, the great toe 
only remaining in the proper place ; the heel is bent forward 
and the child must walk all her life on the back of the heel 
and the great toe. It requires months and even years of 
binding to dwarf the foot so that it can never grow any 
more, and during all that time the girl never for a moment, 
day or night, ceases to suffer.. When the foot is sufficiently 
small, little shoes, four or five inches long, made of silk, 
and covered with fine embroidery, are worn, and Chinese 
' bound-foot ' women, who are never strong and are rather 
silly, are quite proud of their small shoes. I heard of a 
great mandarin who had a little daughter, who was a bright 
intelligent child whom he really loved very much. He 
watched her playing about the court and said : ^ Poor 
little one ; she has but two years more to run ! ' 

'' He meant that, at the end of two years, she would never 
again be able to use her feet freely, which would be bound 
and deformed." 

'' But why do Chinese mothers allow their little girl's 
feet to be bound?" asked Mary. 

'' Just as mothers in other countries allow their daughters 
to do hurtful, foolish things — because it is the custom. 
Then in China young men and women m.ust marry, and 
men are not willing to have wives with large feet; they 
say that where the feet have been crippled women cannot 
go about, unless they ride, which they can not always do, 
and so they have to stay at home. It is a cruel, selfish 
reason, but it is that, really, which has made it so hard to 
do avvay with the practice. Even the silly women themselves 
wish to have their feet bound, and blame their parents 
if they are allowed to grow up with feet the proper shape 



ii6 



and size. Foreign teachers who have opened schools all 
over China for girls who are anxious to be taught, are 
doing a great deal to abolish foot-binding. They will not 
receive ' bound-foot ' girls ; or, if their feet have been bound, 
the bandages must be taken off when they enter school. 
This can be done, and the foreign doctor can help the 
cripples, by straightening the foot and softening the stiffened 

muscles, although their 
feet will never be what 
they were before they 
were bound." 

'' I am very glad that 
I am not a Chinese girl/' 
said Ellen. 

'*' You have many rea- 
sons to be," her mother 
replied, '*' for Chinese 
girls have very little 
freedom and happiness 
and affection, compared 
to those in our own 
country. When many 
Chinese Children gi^-jg ^^^ ^qj-^ in a Chi- 

nese family, the parents believe it is because the gods 
aie angry with them, and the poor little creatures 
are often treated with much cruelty — starved, beaten, 
tortured and even put out into the street to die. The 
foreign teachers have saved hundreds of these waifs, 
taking them into their own homes, or hiring native 
women to take care of them, which they are glad to do, if 
they are paid for it. :\Iany that have been saved in this way 




117 



have been educated and have grown up to have homes and 
families of their own, and you may be very sure that their 
daughter's feet are never bound, nor are they starved and 
beaten. You already know what respect the Chinese have 
for schools, and teachers and education, and when the girl 
is taught and becomes intelligent, she is respected by the 
family as she never could have been if she had remained 
ignorant. She is not only taught from books, but to sew 
and make lace, to speak English in order that she may 
make herself useful in foreign families who are glad to 
hire her and pay her good wages ; and this makes her family 
respect her still more. One little Chinese girl that I saw in 
Shanghai earned more by making lace than her father and 
all her brothers were able to earn. She gave all her money 
to her parents, of course, and you can guess how clever 
the family thought she was, and how much better she was 
treated than if she had been able to do nothing, and still 
had to have her portion of the tea and rice, of which there 
is never quite enough to go around.'' 

'' If the Chinese do not respect women very much, how 
does it happen that they have an Empress who has more 
power than the Emperor, who is a mian ? " 

'' A great many people have asked that question," Mrs. 
Spencer replied. '' It is because the Emperor is the adopted 
son of the Empress Dowager. Her own son, the Emperor 
Tung-Chih, died after he had reigned a few years. He 
had no son to succeed him, and the Empress Dowager 
chose her husband's little nephew to be Emperor, as she 
had a right to do, under the laws of China. He was only 
four years old, — too young to be a real Emperor, so his 
foster mother governed the empire for a long time until 



ii8 



he was old enough to sit on the throne. She was looked 
upon as the mother of the Emperor, and this gave her an 
authority over him which will last as long as he lives. A 
son must obey his mother always, and never, even when he 
is a grown man, does he pass from under her control. When 
the son marries, he does not make a separate home for 
himself, but brings his wife to his mother, where they live 
in the same court ; no matter if there are six sons or more, 

all bring their wives to 
their m o t h e r's house, 
where they wait upon 
her and are treated with 
very little regard until 
they have sons of their 
ov/n. Should they have 
only daughters they are 
treated like servants, al- 
ways. The daughter-in- 
law who has no son does 
not often sit at table, or 
even sit down in the 

presence of her mother- 

The Empress Dowager • i i i • i 

^ ^ m-law, unless she is ask- 

ed to do so. She must sew, and cook and clean and do all 
the rough, hard work, if the family is too poor to hire serv- 
ants to do it. The son can not marry without his mother's 
consent, and he would not consider it lucky to engage in any 
business which she did not approve. The best of everything 
is provided for the mother, — the best rooms in the court, the 
best clothing and the best food, — and a son who neglects 
his mother, disobeys her, or treats her with disrespect, is 




119 



looked tipon as a very v/icked man. Sons often almost 
starve themselves to death in order that their mother may 
have food, if there is not enough for all; so you can see 
why sons are so m.uch desired. The Chinese have a legend 
of a young man who devoted his whole life to caring for 
his mother; he worked early and late, and was only sorry 
that he could not do more. When she finally died he 
mourned bitterly, bought her a fine coffin and had her 
buried in a lucky place. He went to her grave every day, 
During her life she had always been afraid of thunder- 
storms. After she died, during storms he slept upon her 
grave so that her spirit might not be troubled. He was 
thought such a good son that the Chinese worship him to 
this day, and you may see figures of him in many of their 
temples. 

" Every office in China depends upon scholarship, and is 
obtained by means of examinations. Men study for these 
examinations books that have been written by great Chinese 
teachers — Confucius, the greatest of all, and Mencius who 
lived many years later. They know nothing of arithmetic 
as we teach it, or geography, or the real history of the 
world, or what are called the natural sciences. The old 
Chinese do not wish to know, for they consider the world 
outside of China of no importance, and they call the people 
who live there ' foreign devils' or 'outside barbarians.' 

'' The writings of the great Confucius and Mencius are 
really excellent instruction in good morals and good man- 
ners. They teach a child how to conduct himself in the 
presence of his teachers and parents, the duty of parents 
to their teachers and of men to their rulers and of rulers to 
their people. These teachings are committed to memory, 



120 



and, on a certain day, all men who are candidates for any 
office meet in the capital of the province where the examina- 
tion is held. Men of all ages come up to the examinations, 
— the young, the middle-aged and the very old, the ' grand- 
fathers,' as the Chinese call them. If they fail, they may 
try again and again, and there are some who keep trying 
all their lives and never succeed. Boys of all classes can 




Examination Hall 
prepare for the examinations, except the sons of yamen 
runners (as the errand boys at the official residences are 
called), the sons of actors, and the sons of the women 
who sing on the flower-boats and in public halls. When 
a young man passes his examination in the capital of his 
province, he can go up to Peking and pass the highest 
examinations of all, which are held every three years. 



121 



From among these successful students are chosen the can- 
didates for the various offices. 

'' When the examination is to take place, each student 
is shut up by himself in a little brick cell, like an old- 
fashioned oven, in which there are two boards, one upon 
which he sits, and one upon which his writing materials 
are placed, — the paper and ink-stone, which is a piece 
of India ink, for they do not use fluid ink like ours. The 
camel's hair brush with which they write is sharpened 
to a fine point, and with this the characters are really 
painted upon the sheets of soft rice paper which they 
use, — not from left to right — but from right to left. 
The examination requires about three days,, and none 
of the men who hope to pass can leave their cells, 
except to take a little exercise; their food is cooked where 
the examinations are held and brought to them in their 
cells. When a student is successful, there is the greatest 
rejoicing in his native town or city ; firecrackers are set 
off, there are illuminations and processions, and everybody 
takes pride in the honor which their candidate has won, 
which is an honor not only for himself, but for his family, 
his city, and his province. No one else is so proud, then, as 
the mother, whose friends visit her with gifts and con- 
gratulations ; no one is so happy as she, and other mothers 
envy her good fortune." 

The girls were very much interested in all this, but 
Mary said : '' I am more glad than ever that I am not 
a Chinese girl ; I would not like to live in a country where 
I could not study and be taught, and where there was no 
place for me, no matter how hard I might work, or how 
clever I might be.'' 



M 



122 



XIII. ON THE WALLS OF PEKING 

RS. CLIFFORD had promised to take IMary and Ellen 
upon the city wall, and a few days after they had 
met her she called at the hotel for them. Mrs. Spencer 
went with them. They walked, for it was not very far from 
the hotel. The walls of Peking are almost like those of 
Suchau, except that over each gate is a lofty tower of 
many stories, each story tilted upward at the corners, like 
the terraces of a pagoda. There were times when the 
Chinese refused to let foreigners walk upon the wall, and 
Chinese women are never permitted to do so. Foreign 
women are .not refused permission to walk there now, but 
because they go about as they like they are considered 
bold and immodest. Yet, while the Chinese think them 
much too self-reliant, they can not help admiring them 
because they are not afraid, and, still more, because they 
are educated. 

Mrs. Spencer wrote a great many letters, and notes of 
what she had seen, and because she sat so much at her desk 
the servants considered her very wise, and gave her a 
Chinese name by which they always called her : '' Mali 
Gow," which means in English '' the Exhalted One." 

Mrs. Clifford had brought with her a manservant who 
walked behind them. When they reached the passage to the 
top of the wall they found, not steps, but a long, sloping 
ascent paved with narrow bricks up which they climbed 
with very little difficulty. The walls are almost forty 
feet high, paved on top, and strengthened at regular dis- 
tances with additional masonry called buttresses. The 
foundation is of stone, — two walls of the brickwork resting 



123 



on the stone and filled in with earth. Grass and bushes 
grow all along the wall, springing up in the crevices of 
the pavement. The outside wall, which incloses the three- 
fold city, is nearly fifteen miles in extent. It is pierced by 
seven gates which have very high-sounding names, like 
"The Western Gate of Expediency," "The Right Gate 
of Peace," etc. 

There are almost no trees in the country, but, from the 
walls, Peking looks like a city embowered in foliage. The 
trees have not been planted along the streets, but within 




Walls of Peking, Showing Astronomical Instruments 

the courts and gardens from which they can not be seen 
very plainly by passers-by in the streets. Mrs. Clifford 
pointed out the Observatory where at that time there still 
remained the fine astronomical instruments of bronze which 
the Catholic priests, more than two hundred years before, 
had taught the Chinese how to make. Among them was 
a great globe of bronze, with the stars placed upon it as 



124 



they are placed in the heavens. The metal had been so 
burnished by the rain and wind that it had a gloss like 
brown, polished marble. 

Looking east from the Observatory they saw the remains 
of another wall; this was the ancient wall of the old city, 
which had been visited centuries ago by a great traveler 
named Marco Polo, who wrote a book about the Chinese. 
He told m.any strange stories that nobody then believed, but 
which afterwards were found to be true. Near the ancient 
wall they saw the Emperor's rice granaries, a row of low 
buildings in which is stored the rice which belongs to the 
government and which had been brought by ships from the 
south. 

They could also see the yellow-tiled roofs of the Forbid- 
den City, where the Empress Dowager lives. It is not 
really a city but a collection of temples and palaces in beau- 
tiful gardens filled with trees, flowers and lotus ponds, 
and canals spanned by bridges of beautifully carved marble. 
The green-roofed palaces of the Imperial City, where the 
nobles, and the relatives of the Emperor live, are also 
shaded by tall ash trees. The relatives of the Emperor are 
allowed to live in the green-roofed palaces, so long as he 
does not want them for some other purpose — for other 
relatives, or officials, or, as sometimes happened, simply to 
tear them down. 

Mrs. Clifford told them that she knew a family of 
charming Manchu ladies who were cousins of the Em- 
peror and had lived in a palace in the Imperial City. A 
Chinese palace, after all, is rather a poor sort of house. 
It - is scantily furnished compared to our houses, and is 
cold and uncomfortable and never very clean. There is no 



125 



glass in the windows, the frames being set with squares 
of white paper which, wet with the rain, soon become 
ragged and broken. The floors are paved with stone or 
brick and are not covered with rugs or matting; everything 
that is not wanted is thrown upon the floor, for, as Mary 
and Ellen knew, the Chinese are not neat. 

The Emperor's cousins were very happy in their palace, 
which was better than most of such buildings. The garden 
was pretty and spacious, with its lotus ponds and pools 
for the queer, goggle-eyed, spotted Chinese goldfish. 

They had their own theater even, where plays were given 
that it required weeks to present, with large companies of 
actors and musicians who made what we would think very 
horrible noises with their squeaking bagpipes, trumpets, 
hautboys and clanging gongs that sound like so many tones 
in Chinese speech — '' z-i-n-u-n-g ; — p-i-n-u-n-g ; '' — all to- 
gether making a deafening discord. The princesses stayed 
in their palace in cold weather and sat on the brick platform 
in their rooms, — the k'ang^ or Chinese bed — which is 
heated from a little furnace in the floor. They ate and slept, 
read and gossiped, or worked at their fine embroidery, or 
made funny animals, cats, goats and*donkeys, out of cotton 
wool which they colored very prettily and fastened upon 
sheets of blue or green paper and hung upon the wall. In 
summer they strolled about the garden, for being Manchu 
ladies their feet had not been bound ; or they sat upon a 
bench in the shade, while one of the ladies read aloud from 
the classics, or a Chinese poem or story. The garden which 
they loved was beautiful and peaceful ; they thought that 
in all Peking there was not one to be compared with it. 
Alas ! one day a haughty servant from the Forbidden City 



126 



came and told them that the great Son of Heaven, which 
is one of the Emperor's titles, wished them to move to 
another palace in quite a distant part of Peking ; he wanted 
the ground upon which their green-roofed palace stood for 
a pleasure garden, and all the buildings were to be pulled 
down. '' You can imagine," said Airs. Clifford, " hovv^ 
grieved they were, and how hard it must have been for 
them to give up the home of which they had grown so 
fond. But the word of the Emperor is law, it is, in fact, 
the real law of China. So they collected their cabinets of 
carved wood, their porcelain and cloisonne — which is metal 
work inlaid with enamel, — and their stools and tables, 
which were piled into carts and taken to the new palace, 
which was not half so pretty as the old, and where I 
do not think the princesses will ever be quite contented, 
although they must submit and not complain. I passed 
their old home the other day," ]\Irs. Clifford went on, " all 
the buildings were gone, and the brick and rubbish that 
remained was being taken away in carts. It may have 
been that some one who did not like the princesses put it 
into the head of the Emperor to take their palace from them, 
for such things happen in China ; and he has so many 
gardens already, that he could have done very well without 
another. Nothing is left but that tall tree," she said, point- 
ing a long distance away, and they saw it distinctly, its 
spreading boughs stirring softly in the wind. 

'' The Emperor must be very cruel and selfish," said Ellen. 

"On the contrary," said ]\Irs. CHftord, ''he is very mild 
and gentle, and not more selfish than any other one man 
would be who has great power ; who has been taught 
all his life that everv wish must be ^-ranted, and who has 



127 



been courted and flattered and even worshiped. The Chinese 
think that the Emperor is really the Son of Heaven, — 
not a common man likes the rest of us, although he may 
be sad and discouraged, ill and unhappy and disappointed, 
and must die at last, like other men, only perhaps earlier 
than men who have led less anxious and self-indulgent lives. 

'' Those who have 
— -] seen Kuang Hsu de- 
scribe him as tall, slen- 
der and very pale, with 
large dark eyes and 
arched brows, an oval 
face and good features; 
but they say that his 
face is very sad, for he 
is anxious to save his 
country, and to make 
his people happy, which 
you may not quite be- 
lieve, because he took 
his cousins' palace from 
them." 

They walked for sev- 
eral miles along the 
wall, Mary and Ellen 





The Emperor Kuang Hsu 



stopping to gather Tientsin dates, — a pleasant, tart berry 
that grows everywhere on the low bushes, but the hungry 
fuel gatherers who are allowed to take away the weeds 
and leaves on the wall, had not left many of them. 

To the north they saw a tall, mound-shaped hill, with trees 
growing along the sides, and a small pagoda, or summer- 



128 



house, on the top. This is the Ching-shan or '' Coal Hill." 
It is said to be a great mound of coal collected ages ago 
and covered with earth — stored there to be used in case 
the city should ever be surrounded by enemies, and the 
coal mines be cut ofif. One of the Emperors, the last of 
the Ming dynasty, or family, whose name was Tsung- 
Cheng^ hanged himself in this summerhouse when the Man- 




Temple of Confucius 

chus captured Peking and drove the Chinese out. Though 
he was an Emperor, with great riches and armies of sol- 
diers, palaces and thousands of slaves, he could not endure 
life when all these were taken from him, and he died by 
his own hand, rather than submit to being put to death by 
his enemies. 



129 



At the south gate are two parks filled with tall trees, 
and here Mrs. Clifford pointed out the roofs of the Temple 
of Agriculture at the left, and the Temple of Heaven at 
the right. These, with the Temple of Confucius which they 
visited before leaving Peking, are the most sacred temples 
in all China. The temple of Heaven is so old that no one 
knows by whom or when it was first built. It had been 
rebuilt by the Ming Emperors, the great roadmakers and 
builders of China. 

The grounds around the Temple of Heaven contain many 
acres, and are larger than those of the Temple of Agricul- 
ture. Both are surrounded by high walls and entered 
through lofty gates, which at that' time were closed to 
foreigners. 

At certain seasons of the year the Emperor goes up to the 
Temple of Heaven to offer prayers, not to the gods, but to 
the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, in whom the Chinese 
believe. 

Petitions are offered for rain in time of drought; for 
good harvests ; for protection from floods ; for relief in 
time of famine; and for continued peace, for the Chinese 
hate war, as they have reason to do. It is customary for 
the Emperor to leave the palace the evening before the 
day upon which prayers and sacrifices are to be offered. 
The solemn day is the twenty-first day of December, the 
winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. He is carried 
in a gorgeous sedan chair covered with jewels and embroid- 
ery, on the shoulders of thirty-two bearers, a band of 
musicians preceding him, and he is followed by a long 
procession of princes, nobles and magistrates on horseback. 

Within the gates the Emperor leaves the sedan chair and 
krout's china — Q 



130 



proceeds in a carriage drawn by elephants to the Temple 
of Abstinence. Here he remains all night, not daring to 
sleep for a moment, or to taste flesh or wine. When the 
hour for sacrifice arrives he puts on the robes which he 
has to wear at that time and walks to the altar and kneels 
while the fire is lighted which consumes the bullock laid 
upon an iron grating. He bows three times, then prostrates 
himself before the altar, making costly gifts of silk and 
gold and jade, all to the sound of strange, unearthly Chinese 
music. At the last, after other ceremonies, he kneels and 
receives from a priest wine and meat, '' the cup of happi- 
ness '' and " the flesh of happiness." 

A ceremony of the same sort takes place at the spring 
solstice, the 2 1 St of March, when prayers are offered for an 
abundant harvest. This festival is not so important as 
that which occurs in the winter when blessings upon the 
whole empire are asked. 

In the Temple of Agriculture there are four altars ; one 
each set apart for the spirits of heaven, the spirits of earth, 
the spirits of the year, and for the spirit of the man who is 
known throughout China as the first farmer, or Shen-nung, 
who taught his children how to till the lands, sow the grain, 
cultivate the vegetables, and gather the harvest. While 
many trades are carried on, farming is the chief industry 
and is looked upon by the Chinese as very honorable. Every 
spring the Emperor goes also to the Temple of Agriculture 
and plows a piece of ground, to show his reverence for agri- 
culture and to set an example of industry to his people. 
A high magistrate is also required to plow a piece of ground 
set apart for the purpose. 

Ellen and Mary would have liked very much to see these 



131 



temples, but even if they had not been closed to foreigners 
the Chinese would not have been willing to admit girls. 
They were not so strict in the Temple of Confucius. 

As they came back along the wall they peeped into the 
door of one of the towers, which had been left ajar, and 
saw a lot of dusty rubbish and rusting cannon. The sol- 
diers that stood by the tower did not object, but let them 
look as long as they liked. 

When they reached the street they heard approaching a 
great noise of gongs which were being struck with slow, 
loud, crashing blows that almost drowned the trumpets 
and bagpipes. ''That is a funeral,'' said Mrs. Clifford; 
we must wait and see it. It must be the funeral of an 
official, there are so many musicians." 

It soon came in sight, the musicians sounding the trumpets 
and beating the gongs. In the procession were men and 
boys dressed in long, dingy, scarlet frocks,, with pointed red 
hats in which were broken, draggled feathers, the whole 
dress being very shabby and dirty. Each carried a wand or 
banner of some sort. These men and boys had been picked 
up anywhere in the streets, and were paid a few " cash " to 
walk to the grave and swell the procession. 

Behind them came other men, dressed in white from head 
to foot. They moaned and wailed, and some appeared so 
faint with grief that they had to be supported on either 
side, as if they were not able to walk by themselves. The 
family, the wives and children of the dead man — for rich 
men in China have several wives — rode in carts, and they, 
too, were dressed in white; even their shoes and earrings 
were covered with white cloth, but they did not appear to 
feel very sad. 



132 



Some of the men in the procession carried strings of 
queer-shaped silver and gold paper which had been bought 
in certain shops where it is always sold. This is called 
'' spirit money/' which is burned at the grave, and which 
the Chinese believe can then be used by the spirit of the 
dead man in the spirit world, to which his friends believe 
he has gone. But they carried not only paper money, but 
representations of> carts, horses, mAiles, servants, sedan 
chairs, wives, all of the natural size, and all cut out of paper, 
painted to make them as lifelike as possible. These, like 
the money, were to be burned, and thus changed into spirit 
mules, carts, wives and servants. Such a funeral is very 
costly. The coffin, which is always of fine cedar with 
black or silver letters on the end, was carried on a bier 
and was hidden by a pall of splendid scarlet silk, richly 
embroidered in flowers, birds and butterflies. The bier 
was carried by means of heavy scarlet poles and cords, and 
required seventy men to lift it. 

The Chinese are very proud of their funerals, and it is a 
common thing for them to buy their coffins and keep them 
in their houses for years before they are needed. They do 
not dislike to have the coffin in the house, as we would, but 
show it to their friends, who admire it as we would admire 
a fine piece of furniture. There are many coffin shops in 
all Chinese towns and cities, and the fragrance of the cedar 
out of which the coffins are made is very pleasant. 

'' As they are going to bury the man, I suppose the geo- 
mancer must have been paid well to find a lucky place for 
the grave," said Mary, who remembered that this was nec- 
essary, and that bodies sometimes remained unburied for 
months and even years, if the geomancer did not exert 



^33 



himself, or was being too well paid, and so prolonged his 
search as much as he could. 



XIV. THE MING TOMBS 

THE time had passed so quickly they did not realize that 
the middle of October had come. Mr. and Mrs. Clif- 
ford, whose home was in Peking, had made up a party to 
go to the Ming Tombs and the Nan K'ou Pass, which every- 
one who can do so visits while in that part of China. Mrs. 
Spencer, Mary and Ellen were invited to join the party, an 
invitation which they were glad to accept. 

The Ming Tombs are the burial places of the great rulers 
of China who did so much for the Empire and the people 
before they were conquered by the Manchus, a people 
living in their own country to the west of China. At that 
time the Manchus excelled only in making war; they had 
very few arts, very little learning, and lived as the people 
still live in Manchuria, chiefly by raising flocks and herds. 

The tombs of the Mings are about thirty miles north- 
west of Peking, and the Nan K'ou Pass is at about the 
same distance but a little more to the south. 

The pass is the opening in the Hsi Shan, or Western Hills, 
along the summits of which rise the towers and solid mason- 
ry of the Great Wall. The Pass is a long defile, with tower- 
ing clififs on either side, following the bed of a stream which 
is dry through the summer and winter. At the northwest 
termination of the Pass is a lofty archway in the Great Wall, 



134 



through which go long caravans of camels, mules, horses, 
donkeys, carts, litters and wagons. It is the road over which 
traffic is carried on between China, Central Asia and Russia. 
As Mary and Ellen had often been told, it is hard work 
to travel in China, away from the seacoast cities where for- 
eigners are allowed to live, or remote from the rivers and ca- 




Mule Litter 



nals upon which one can travel in a house boat. There are no 
roads that can be called roads ; no comforts, no conveniences 
of any sort. Mrs. Spencer was to travel in a mule litter, 
and the girls were to go in a cart to the City Gate ; then 
they begged to be allowed to ride upon the little gray 
donkeys which seemed so gentle and surefooted. They 



135 



could dismount and walk when they liked, and take turns 
riding with their mother in the litter. 

Everything that they might require had to be carefully 
thought of and lists made out beforehand, as on the house 
boat journey, for they could buy very little in the towns and 
villages through which they were to pass. One cart was 
loaded with supplies of food — bread ; beef, partially cooked 
so that it would not spoil ; tinned fruits ; condensed milk 
and cream; coffee, tea, and even vegetables. 

The bedding went in another cart, with the heavy strings 
of '' cash " which would be needed to buy charcoal, fowls, 
eggs, and forage for the animals. 

When they set out from the hotel they formed quite a 
caravan, with the carts, mules, servants, and Mrs. Spencer's 
litter, with the mounted litterman riding beside it. It was 
a lovely autumn morning; the sky more deeply blue than 
they had yet seen it in China, The hills, which were really 
mountains, took on a hundred lovely tints ; but, though they 
seemed near at hand, they were really far off, and the Chi- 
nese have a proverb, ''Who goes to the hills, rides a dead 
horse,^' because one may travel all day and not reach them. 
Over their slopes hung a veil of pale blue haze. '' It is 
quite like an October morning at home/' said Mrs. Spencer, 
'' except that here there are no trees or vines turning yellow 
and scarlet in the frost.^' 

They made their way along Legation street very leisurely, 
passing the British Legation, which is not far from that of 
the United States. The walls are high and strong, and the 
buildings are solid and roomy, and can be seen from the 
street. No one knew what was to happen within that 
compound before many months had passed, and the big 



136 



gates stood hospitably open that bright October morning. 
Behind those walls men and women, surrounded by cruel 
Boxers, were to be imprisoned for weeks, with little hope 
of rescue — saved at last, however, by the brave soldiers 
sent to their relief. It was well that ^Nlrs. Spencer could 
not look into the future, for she would never have ventured 
to visit Peking, much less go into the countrv with her 





.%-r^iTr 




(Copyright, 1901, by J. C. Hemment) 

Legation Street, Peking 

two daughters, when, even at that time, although they 
were outwardly friendly, the people were ready to make 
war on the foreigners, and had determined to kill them 
all — men, women and children. 

The streets at that early hour, for it was only a little 
past seven, were already crowded with busy people buying 
and selling, none idle but the beggars, and the boys and 



"^n 



men who were gathered under the story-teller's tent, lis- 
tening as he read or talked. 

At the gate they met scores of men carrying baskets bal- 
anced on poles and heaped with glossy, orange-colored per- 
simmons, which were very tempting, but which Mrs. Clifford 
said were not fit to eat yet, because there had not been frost 
enough. The rutty tracks outside the walls were thronged 
with people on their way to Peking. Mary and Ellen had 
never seen such multitudes ; those on foot were dressed alike 
in blue frocks, black shoes and white socks ; some bareheaded, 
and others with the hair covered with a cloth or a black 
satin cap with a scarlet tuft on top. 

The girls left the cart, glad to escape the terrific jolting 
which they could not have endured very long. They mounted 
the little gray donkeys that, saddled and bridled, were wait- 
ing for them outside the walls. They were as gentle as 
kittens, but rather lazy; and now and then one would doze 
as he walked, stumble and fall with his rider. Fortunately, 
the donkey is such a tiny beast that no one is hurt by such 
a mishap. 

The girls were glad when they struck off across the fields 
by a path just wide enough for the donkeys, but in which the 
carts, which went around by the road, could not travel. 
They were to have their noon dinner at an inn in a village 
about ten miles from Peking, and Su Neah, Mrs. Clifford's 
'' Boy," went on ahead to prepare it. 

They were to stop at the Ta-Chung-sze, or the Temple 
of the Great Bell. It stands, like all the other temples they 
had seen, in its own grounds, behind high walls and great, 
closed gates. They paid the gate keeper to let them in, which 
he was not quite willing to do. The court was not very 



138 



clean, but the oak, pine and ash trees made a pleasant shade, 
and it was very peaceful and quiet. The great bell hung in a 
small pavilion of its own, in a framework of stout timbers, 
and, like ail the great bells of China and Japan, was sounded 
by being struck on the outer surface by a heavy beam that 
can be moved to and fro. The Chinese think that when- 




An Inn Courtyard 

ever it is struck the gods will at once send rain ; though, if 
this were really true, they need never suffer from the long 
droughts that so often parch the fields and ruin the poor 
farmers' crops in all this part of China. 

The bell is of bronze, and was cast in the reign of the 
Emperor Yung-lo, who is called by the Chinese the '' Per- 



139 



feet Ancestor." This was over four hundred years ago. 
There is but one other bell in the world that is so large, — the 
great bell which hangs in the Kremlin in Moscow, but which 
was cracked in casting. The bell of the Ta-Chung-sze is 
sound and whole, and has a deep, rich tone that can be heard 
for a long distance. It is said that fourteen men can stand 
under the great bronze bell, every inch of the surface of 
which is covered with texts from the writings of Buddha, 

who is worshiped by millions 
of people in China and India. 
The texts are in Chinese char- 
acters. 

In China the children are told 
a legend of the great bell, and 
there are few of them who do 
not know it. When the Em- 
peror gave orders to have it 
cast, all the master-molders of 
the Empire were summoned to 
Peking by the mandarin, 
Kouan-yu. The metal was col- 
1 e c t e d — vast quantities of 
brass, gold and silver — and 
the furnace fires were lighted. 
But the melted metals refused to blend, and three times the 
bell was cast without success. At last the Emperor warned 
Kouan-yu that, if he failed again, he would be put to death. 
The mandarin was sad and troubled. He had a beautiful 
daughter, Ko-N'gai, whom he loved fondly. She noticed 
her father's anxiety, and, learning that his life was in danger, 
she consulted the geomancer to see if the peril could be 




The Great Bell 



140 



averted. The geomancer told her that the metals would not 
unite unless they were mixed with human blood. On the 
dreaded day, when the bell was to be cast for the fourth 
time, Ko-N'gai begged that she might go with her nurse to 
see the molten metal poured into the mold. They stood upon 
the platform looking down upon the seething mass of brass, 
gold and silver, boiling and bubbling, and when the final 
moment came Ko-N'gai cried : '' For thy sake, O, my 
father!'' and leaped down into the burning metal. Not a 
trace of her body was found, but she left, as she sprang 
from the platform, one tiny shoe in the hand of the nurse, 
who tried to catch and hold her back. When the bell is 
sounded the Chinese say that, as the tones die away, they 
can hear the voice of Ko-N'gai calling '' Hi-ai,'' and the 
Chinese mothers say to their little ones : 

''Listen! that is Ko-N'gai; that is Ko-N'gai crying for 
her shoe." 

They saw for the first time, after they left the temple, 
Chinese farms and farmhouses. The fields were being 
plowed for the next year's crops, and they were very smooth 
and clean. There were neither fences nor hedges, but in 
some places low embankments had been thrown up. There 
were no dividing lines that could be seen between most of 
the fields, but the farmers themselves knew where they 
were, and they never quarreled about them or encroached 
upon their neighbor's land. 

The inn where they had dinner was very bare — low 
houses arranged around a court in which the carts were left, 
the animals being fed at stone troughs in sheltered stalls 
opposite the rooms which they hired. There was a reception 
room and a bedchamber ; the floors were paved with brick, 



141 



which Su Neah had swept; there were panes of glass in 
the window, and a crooked mirror for the use of foreigners, 
who were received at this inn without objection. Many 
Chinese innkeepers will not receive foreign guests. In the 
reception room were some benches, two straight-backed, 
long-legged Chinese chairs and a greasy table. In the 




Chinese Farm — Drying Rice 

chamber the ka'ng, or Chinese bed, on which Su Neah had 
spread a clean straw mat, took up half the space. In the 
floor, close to the ka'ng, was a square hole, with pipes 
running under the bed. In winter, balls of coal dust mixed 
with earth are placed in the square hole and a fire is then 
lighted; until the coal balls become red-hot the family 
can not come into the room, for they would be in danger 



142 



of being suffocated with the fumes from the burning coal 
balls. The ka'ng, instead of the room, is heated, and 
the guests sit there in the daytime and sleep upon it at 
night, wearing thick, wadded coats. Only the houses of the 
very rich have stoves heated with charcoal, and many of 
these are without pipes, so that when the first fire is lighted 
doors and windows must be kept open for some time. Many 
persons die in China every year from the fumes of charcoal 
fires. 

They rested for an hour, and then set out again, hoping 
to spend the night at the little mission of Ch'ang-p'ing-chow, 
which they were able to do. It was in charge of a mild, 
gentle Chinese and his young wife, both Christians. Al- 
though it was only a native Chinese house, with its bare 
court, with very little furniture, the place w^as so sweet and 
clean, compared to the dirty streets of Ch'ang-p'ing-chow, 
that Mary and Ellen felt it was almost like being in their 
own country again. 

Su Neah cooked the supper over a brazier in the court; 
broiled the beef, made toast and cocoa, and did it all quickly 
and neatly. Mary and Ellen brought chairs out of the house 
and sat by the glowing fire and watched him. He smiled 
at them and showed his pretty dimples, and both girls 
thought him sweet-tempered and good-looking. The stars 
came out high overhead in the sky, which, in China, seems 
so far off and so sharply arched. The mattresses were spread 
upon the ka'ng, and they went to bed very early, and were 
on their way the next morning before the sun had risen. 
They had crossed several marble bridges, which must have 
been very splendid before they had fallen into ruin ; the bal- 
ustrades were finely carved, and the roadway across them 



143 



was paved with great blocks of stone clamped together with 
bolts of iron. But the paving was worn and broken, and 
the piers had fallen down, and many of the marble slabs 
had been carried away, or used for stepping-stones in the 
shallow streams. 

The Ming Tombs are in a wide valley inclosed on three 
side with hills ; there are thirteen, each at the foot of a low 
spur which reaches out into the level plain from the higher 
range of hills behind it. The central tomb is that of the 




Avenue of Animals— Ming Tombs 

great Yung-lo. The entrance to the valley of the tombs is 
through a pai-low, or gateway of white marble columns, and 
beyond the gateway is a pavilion containing an enormous 
stone tortoise, upon the back of which is a stone tablet. A 
poem by another of the Ming Emperors has been cut upon 
the stone. From this pavilion they entered the Avenue of 
Animals, a long avenue bordered on either side by figures 
of elephants, lions, camels, horses and unicorns, some stand- 



144 



ing and some kneeling, with other figures of magistrates 
and soldiers. At the head of the avenue there had once 
been another fine marble bridge, but it was gone. The 
tomb of the Emperor Yung-lo is like the others, in the 
midst of a large inclosure shut in with high walls. 

As they had been riding for many hours, they decided to 
have luncheon before trying to parley with the gate keeper. 
The day was warm and bright. Not far off was a persim- 
mon orchard, the first trees that they had seen. The orange- 
colored fruit hanging in the crimson foliage reminded Mary 
and Ellen of the trees loaded with jewels of which they 
had read in fairy stories. They tried to imagine how it 
must have seemed when the body of the great Emperor had 
been carried to his tomb, over the marble bridges, under 
the pai-low, and up the long avenue with the stone animals 
standing and kneeling on either hand. 

They had seen no Chinese anywhere, but when they sat 
down to the picnic luncheon, men and boys, who appeared 
to have sprung up out of the ground, came and watched 
them hungrily. 

Mr. Clifford spoke Chinese, and he had to persuade the 
gate keeper a long time before he would open the gates ; he 
wanted a great deal of money, but when he found that he 
could not get the sum he named he took less, but was not in 
a good humor about it. 

The court, like that at the Bell Temple, is planted with fine 
oaks and pines, and pretty gray squirrels were running 
about gathering their winter stores of acorns. The Chinese 
have great regard for what they call ''the written char- 
acter," and burn all waste paper upon which anything 
has been written or printed. An oven stood just within 



M5 



the gate, in which all paper of this sort was burned. 
The Ancestral Hall is approached by a terrace with bal- 
ustrades of carved marble, and the steps are also of marble ; 
it is here, upon the altar set with vases and candlesticks, 
that sacrifices of food and drink are offered to the spirit 
of the dead Emperor. The roof is very lofty, paneled 
in green, and supported by columns, which are made of 
the trunks of giant teak trees which were brought from 
Burma. Behind the Ancestral Hall is the last pavilion, 
where the coffin passage, through which the body was 
carried to the grave, has been walled up so that it can never 
be used again. Other passages have been left, to the left 
and right, and through these one can reach the last court 
of all. Here the Emperor was buried under a mound of 
earth half a mile high and one hundred and fifty feet in 
circumference. Forest trees have sprung up in the centuries 
that have passed, and the '' Perfect Ancestor '' and '' Literary 
Emperor '' has not been disturbed where he has lain so long 
at rest. 



XV. THE NAN K^OU PASS 

AFTER leaving the wonderful tombs, they went south 
to the Nan K'ou Pass. They did not reach the 
walled town of Chu-yung-chuan at the entrance of the Pass, 
where they were to spend the night, until it was almost 
dark. The walls of Chu-yung-chuan are irregular and 
broken, but two strong towers still remain behind the 

KROUT's china — 10 



146 



town from which the sentinels can give warning when 
an enemy approaches. In the very center of one of the 
towers a tall telegraph pole had been planted, which Mary 
and Ellen pointed out, and which, in that strange country, 
seemed familiar and friendly. The telegraph line runs 
from Peking to Kalgan, a flourishing Russian settlement 
in Manchuria, where a large trade is carried on. 




Great Wall — Nan K'ou Pass 

It was already dusk in the valley, and they turned in at 
the gate of the inn where they were to spend the night, 
tired and dusty. As they went into the house there was a 
rushing sound over the ragged paper which formed the 
ceiling. '' Those are rats," said Mr. Clifford, laughing, 
" they do not like the smell of foreigners, and they are 



147 



running away; they will not come back, no matter how- 
hungry they are/' 

Mary and Ellen were a good deal relieved, for the thought 
of rats running over them in the night was certainly not 
pleasant. For once, however, Mr. Clifford was mistaken; 
one bold fellow — quite a hero he must have been among 
the other rats — did venture back in the night, climbed 
upon the table and made a good meal off the sperm candle, 
which Su Neah had left there. Mary and Ellen slept so 
soundly that they did not hear him. They woke long before 
daybreak and listened to the stir of multitudes of feet and 
the measured clang-clang of camel bells. The caravans 
were coming and going through the Pass, for camels must 
give the road in China to everything. This delays them 
so much that the camel driver prefers to travel by night 
and rest by day. The animals are tethered in strings of 
six or eight, walking, one behind the other, the leader 
wearing a tasseled bell, as they had seen the camels in 
Peking. When it is broad daylight they are allowed to 
rest, relieved of their loads, either in the court of a camel 
inn, or on the open plain by the roadside. 

Mary and Ellen rose quietly, dressed, and went to the 
gate to look at the camels. They came steadily on, with 
a soft, undulating tread, their huge, cushioned feet making 
a pattering sound on the dusty road. The driver walked 
beside them, but he rarely spoke to them; they quietly 
and obediently followed the sound of the leader's bell. 
They bore upon their humped backs bales and bags and 
square boxes, which contained silks and tea for Russia, 
charcoal, soda and skins from Siberia, and wool and goat's 
hair from Mongolia and Manchuria. 



148 



"These are real camels," said Mary, ''they have two 
humps ; the dromedary has but one. I wonder how long it 
takes the silk and tea to reach Russia? It is a very, very 
long distance, and see how slowly the camels walk/' 

" Mr. Clifford told me that they would not reach Russia 
for a whole year," Ellen replied. " When the great railway 
across Siberia is finished it will not take more than two 
weeks." 

" But if all the bales and parcels are sent by train what 
will become of the camel drivers ? " Mary asked. But this 
was a question vdiich Ellen could not answer. 

Presently the sun touched the highest ridges of the 
mountains, and there before them, high up on the very 
crest, they saw the outlines of the Great Wall. The brick 
work might have been a part of the mountain itself, fol- 
lowing the ridge up and down, now easily traced, now 
lost sight of, the upper edge crenelated, or cut out in embra- 
sures, like all walls built for defense. It reminded the girls 
of a huge serpent that had dragged its dun-colored length 
along the mountain top, and remained there to bask 
in the sun. As the light grew stronger, the narrow road 
that wound up a gradual ascent could be seen for some 
distance, but it was finally lost sight of behind a jagged 
cliff. 

Fewer and fewer camels passed and then came scores of 
mules and donkeys, — the poor little donkeys so loaded with 
the bundles of millet stalks that they carried that nothing 
could be seen of them but their mouse-colored legs and 
faces. They seemed to be living bales and nothing more. 
At a little distance they saw three men stop suddenly and 
stoop down in the road ; they were picking up, one by one, 



149 



some grams of millet that had been spilled from a broken 
sack. Confucius, the great teacher, taught the Chinese 
that if a man finds a grain of rice which he can not use 
himself he should place it where a sparrow can get it. 
Millet is the cheapest food in China, yet the people are so 
thrifty that not even a grain of it is wasted. One never sees 
any scraps of paper or shreds of cloth, no weeds or dead 
leaves lying about; all are made use of in some way. 

If the people were not so thrifty, many m.ore would die 
than now perish every year from hunger in spite of their 
saving habits and ceaseless work. 

Su Neah called them in to breakfast which was very 
nice; he had made delicious .cofifee, porridge and even hot 
cakes over the charcoal brazier, and after they had eaten 
all they wanted they were refreshed and ready to set out 
again. 

The road through the Pass was very rough, cut into 
ruts that are never filled, and strewn with bowlders over 
which the wheels of the carts jolted and ground. 

As they mounted higher and higher, the black cliffs on 
either hand seemed to reach almost to the clouds. The 
river, which during the rains overflows its banks, was now 
quite dry. 

They had seen few birds since they came to China, except 
the pet birds which were carried about on forked sticks and 
in cages, and the flocks of crows, and magpies. Once 
they had seen a crow and a magpie fighting a hawk, 
the crow cawing in triumph as his enemy flew away, glad 
to escape with his life. 

The mountain gorges of the Pass were alive with wild 
pigeons and beautiful pheasants. Mr. Clifford, with Su 



150 



Neah, left them to go on to the head of the Pass where 
he said he would soon join them, after he and Su Neah 
had had a Httle shooting. Presently they heard the noise 
of his gun, the echoes repeated many times in the wild 
gorges. When he finally rejoined them he had half a dozen 
pheasants and twice as many pigeons. Mary and Ellen 
felt sad when they looked at the dead birds which, only a 
little while before, were enjoying their free, happy life 
and now lay on the ground at their feet, their beautiful 
feathers torn and stained with blood. 

''Another bird is found in the Pass," said Mr. Clifford, 
called the bustard. It is quite large and excellent to eat. 
Chinese turkeys are poor and tough, and the Americans 
who live in Peking always try to get a bustard for their 
Thanksgiving dinner." Then he told them that foreigners 
in China grow very tired of game and much prefer beef. 
A fat pheasant can be bought for ten cents. 

They saw here and there along the road the most squalid 
inns for the camel drivers and their animals. There were 
no walls around the court, nothing but a low embankment 
of earth, but the camels had been fed and watered, and they 
lay on the ground contentedly resting. 

It was about ten o'clock when they reached the head of 
the Pass. The wall here was like that which they had first 
seen at Nan K'ou, and the stony road which passed beneath 
the arch crossed the plain beyond, and thence to Manchuria, 
Siberia and Russia. There were lofty watchtowers upon 
the wall at regular distances, and the top of the wall was 
reached, not by a paved incline, but by a rough stairway. 

From the top .of the wall, which they reached without 
difficulty, they saw a flock of sheep approaching, some of 



151 



them with jet black faces and large fat tails, which the 
people of Mongolia consider a greart delicacy. 

The men in charge of them carried small triangular yellow 
flags which fluttered from long staves. On the flags were 
Chinese letters. '' The sheep are tribute from Mongolia," 
said Mr. Clifford, '' and are being driven up to the capital." 
By this he meant that the Mongolians, who are subjects 
of the Emperor of China, do not pay their taxes in money, 
for which, in their country, they have very little use. They 
have flocks and herds, however, and, regularly every year, 
a certain number of animals are sent to Peking to the 
Emperor instead of money. They are sold there, and the 
money received for them is paid into the imperial treasury. 

They also saw droves of fat swine that were being taken 
to Peking by the herders, and the oddest thing about them 
was that their hoofs had been covered with shoes of heavy 
white canvas. This was to protect their feet which other- 
wise would be cut by the sharp stones. This would lame 
them so that they could not travel and they would have 
to be left behind. The only difficulty with the cloth shoes 
is, that they must wear out very fast and have to be re- 
placed very often, which must take a great deal of time 
and work. The Chinese are patient and painstaking, how- 
ever, and do not often complain, whatever they have to 
do ; so, perhaps they do not mind shoeing their pigs every 
day, as they draw near to Peking. The girls were surprised 
to see the animals — the sheep, mules, horses, camels and 
pigs — so fat and healthy. The backs of the litter mules 
were galled, but, aside from this, the Chinese do not 
appear to treat animals cruelly. The girls did not see any 
animals beaten, and they had watched the carter feeding 



152 



the mules and donkeys in the morning and evening. Each 
was given a generous meal of millet fodder chopped fine, 
and mixed with beans or grain ; at all the wayside wells 
they are watered, and are never hurried. The man who 
drew the water was paid one '' cash " for each pailful. 

They sat upon the wall for more than an hour watching 
the flocks and herds, the carts and wagons and litters that 
passed in and out under the arch, lost in the curve of the 
road behind the clififs in one direction, or disappearing in 
the clouds of dust which hung like a haze over the valley, 
in the other. The wall was paved on top with large gray 
bricks that had not been dried in the sun, but baked in kilns 
until they were almost like glass. They walked for a long 
distance and climbed to the top of another watchtower, 
Then they retraced their steps to the carts and donkeys and 
set their faces toward Peking. 

They were glad that they had seen even this part of the 
Great Wall, although it was not so old as other portions, 
northeast of Peking, which are little more than heaps of 
ruins, and which extend in a crooked line to the sea. As 
they retraced their steps through the busy streets of Nan 
K'ou, and entered Chu-yung-chuan, they saw upon the 
inner walls of the archway inscriptions in six languages 
which had been cut there centuries before. A still stranger 
sight was several pairs of shoes hung in plain view above 
the gates. Mr. Clifford explained that when any great 
man, a scholar, magistrate or general, visited the city, he 
was begged to leave a pair of his shoes to hang up over 
the gate that the people might be reminded of his virtues 
and imitate them. 

Mary and Ellen were also told that if a son killed his 



153 



parents, or soldiers mutinied in a walled city, they were exe- 
cuted and as many embrasures in the wall filled up as there 
had been executions. This was to publish the disgrace of 
the city to the world. When such crimes occur every one is 
held responsible, — the relatives and neighbors that they 
have not set a better example ; the magistrate that he has 
not governed better; the teachers that they have not given 
proper instruction; and all are very much ashamed to see 
the walled-up embrasures which will always remind them 
that they have not done their duty. 

At a stream some distance from Chu-yung-chuan they 
saw a company of strange men. They had dismounted from 
their shaggy ponies and were smoking their pipes. Their 
faces were very swarthy, and they wore queer, tall hats of 
black lamb's wool, long, dark gowns, or caftans, belted 
at the waist, and boots of wrinkled leather. 

" They are Mongols," said Mr. Clifford, '' rough, bois- 
terous men, not cruel, and very kind to their animals — 
much better than many Christians. In the winter they take 
great quantities of frozen game and meat to Peking where 
they stay sometimes for several weeks, living in tents 
wherever they can find space." 

They spent the last night at the little mission, to which 
they returned and which seemed even more comfortable 
than before, and the next day pushed on, stopping only 
for a little rest and luncheon at noon. About two o'clock 
the wind began to blow very hard, and the sky grew dark 
as if a storm were approaching; the sun was hidden and 
they had to cover their eyes and mouths to keep from being 
blinded and suffocated with the dust. When they finally 
reached the hotel in Peking, although the doors and windows 



154 



had been tightly closed, everything was coated with fine 
brown dust that had been forced in through every crack. It 
was of no use to clear it away until the storm was over. No 
rain fell, but the wind roared and howled all night. 



XVL THE SCHOOL 

MARY and Ellen knew that in China girls are not 
always sent to school. In the families of the rich 
they share the lessons of their brothers until they are ten 
years old ; then boys and girls are taught separately ; or, 
perhaps, the girls' lessons cease altogether, for the Chinese 
do not really think that it is a good thing for women to 
read and write. They are afraid it may cause them to 
neglect their homes and their children. ]\Ien and women 
from our own country have gone out to China and have 
founded good schools for both girls and boys in many 
places. At first none but the children of the very poor came 
to the schools, and most of these came simply because they 
were given food and clothes which they could not get at 
home. Other children are picked up out of the streets — 
tiny babies who can hardly walk or talk. The Chinese, 
themselves, let such children die, and they can not under- 
stand why people of a different race, who never get any 
money for their work, should care for them and want to 
teach them. The Chinese usually expect some return for 
what they do, in presents and money, for which one can 
not blame them, when it is remembered how many millions 



155 



there are in China, how poor so many of them are, and 
how hard it is for them to get even millet enough to 
eat. The Chinese who wished children to learn only the 
teachings of the classics, that is, the writings of Confu- 
cius and Mencius, told terrible falsehoods about the foreign 
teachers. They said that they tortured and murdered 
children for their eyes and their blood, out of which 
they made medicine. The Chinese who might have 
been friendly were frightened, but, after a while, the pupils 
and their friends and parents learned for themselves that 
such stories were false and silly. Then more and more 
children were sent to the schools, many more than could 
be received, for there were neither rooms nor teachers 
enough. 

Thousands of young men have entered the colleges that 
have been founded by the foreigners, and are being taught 
as they are taught in civilized countries, — young men who 
will one day govern China. A change has come about, too, 
in regard to the girls. When their parents saw how much 
better and how much more intelligent they became through 
the help of the foreign teachers, they were eager to send 
them to the schools. Then the Chinese themselves began 
to found schools of the same sort; not for boys only, but, 
more wonderful still, for girls as well. In the girls' schools 
they employ foreign ladies for teachers, and Chinese ladies 
who have been taught in foreign schools. 

Mrs. Spencer was asked to visit a Mission school for 
girls before she left Peking, and Mary and Ellen went w4th 
her. At the Mission gate they found a tall, dark-skinned 
Chinese who let them in, bowing very low\ They had not 
seen such a pretty place since they left Shanghai. The 



156 



compound contained several acres, and inside the high walls 
were the residences of the teachers, the hospital and dis- 
pensary, the school building and the little Chinese houses 
in which the schoolgirls lived. 

They were first invited into the house which, although 
plainly furnished, was neat and cheerful, with shelves full 
of books, pictures and a piano. After they had tea they 




Chinese Mission Schoolroom 



went with the principal of the school to see her pupils at 
work. The schoolrooms were large and light ; the floors 
were very clean, and the girls sat at desks like those in 
American schoolrooms. They were nearly all dressed alike 
in blue coats, which reached to the knee, with wide sleeves 
edged with a pretty border, and in trousers which fitted 
closely, and which v;ere fastened at the ankle with a neat 



157 



silken garter. Their hair -was smoothly brushed and braided 
in one thick braid, fastened close to the head with cords 
of black or red, and hanging down the back. All wore 
white cloth socks and Chinese shoes. A few wore white 
clothing, being dressed in mourning. ''They are Chinese 
girls," the teacher said, " and we change their customs 
as little as we can ; they are not foreigners, and must 
spend their lives here. We want to m.ake them better 
and more intelligent, teach them to be clean and truthful 
and good, without unfitting them to live amongst their own 
people.'' 

Mrs. Spencer thought this was very wise ; indeed, she was 
pleased with all that she saw, — the gentleness and patience 
of the teachers with their pupils, and the love and reverence 
of the pupils for their teachers. 

They were studying and reciting from Chinese books. 
They read, and two or three were working problems of 
arithmetic upon the blackboard, just as Mary and Ellen 
themselves might have done. There were no idle pupils ; all 
were so anxiovis to learn that they wasted no time. 

'' They are very easy to control," said the teacher. '' They 
wish to do right, and we do not have to make them work ; 
they study because they love to study." She then told Mrs. 
Spencer that some of the pupils had really remarkable 
minds; and she pointed out one tall, beautiful girl who, 
she said was the best pupil in arithmetic that she had 
ever known. 

They sang very sweetly for the visitors, which did not 
surprise them as they had heard the Christian Chinese sing 
at their church. These girls, however, had been taught to 
sing the parts, contralto and soprano, which seemed as 



1^8 



natural to them as to any other girls. Mrs. Spencer and 
the girls, after leaving the schoolrooms, went into the 
sewing school where the pupils were taught every Friday 
afternoon. Some were cutting out, and others were making 
and mending garments, and still others were running the 
sewing machines. They are also taught to make lace, 




Chinese Mission Schoolgirls 
which they sell, and which helps to clothe them and to 
pay their expenses. 

Last of all, Mrs. Spencer and the two girls were taken 
across the court to the little houses in which the resident 
pupils have their rooms, and, in this respect the school is 
unlike a foreign boarding school. All the cooking is done 
by the girls themselves, who take turns in the kitchen. The 
food is such as the Chinese prefer, — plain, but enough 
of it, and everything of the best. 



159 



A Chinese range is of brick, the fire-box Hned with metal- 
It does not look in the least like a stove, and a foreign 
cook could scarcely use it. The oven is on top, and might 
have been mistaken for an iron kettle turned upside down. 
Yet, with this clumsy contrivance, a clever Chinese cook 
can bake the most delicious bread and pastry and puddings. 
Things of this sort, however, the schoolgirls rarely have 




Dining Room — Chinese Mission 

except on Sundays and feast days. They eat a great deal 
of millet porridge, large, cone-shaped cakes of maize meal 
steamed until they are light and thoroughly done, rice 
and vegetables; and, twice a week they are given meat, 
which is much oftener than most Chinese, unless they 
are very rich, can afford to have it. 

When the visitors went into the kitchen they found one 
stout girl steaming maize cakes at the queer stove, and 



i6o 



another preparing the vegetables ; still another was scouring 
a table. They were chatting merrily and were healthy 
and happy. In the dining-room were two long tables 
at which the pupils ate, waited upon by those who take 
turns at this work, also. To a foreign girl, their bed- 
rooms would have seemed bare and cold, but they were 
such as even well - to - do people in China are accustomed 
to. The floors were of brick, neatly swept. In each room 
was a table with wash basin, combs, brushes, and soap. 
Each girl has her own room, and is expected to take 
good care of it. The ka'ng took up a great deal of space. 
It was heated with the little stove in the floor, and upon it 
the girls sat and studied, chatted and sewed. At certain 
hours they w^ere allowed to visit each other. Monday was 
washing day, and all washed their clothes in small tubs, 
making a kind of merry game of it. It is not hard work 
as the clothes are very plain, simply the white socks, the 
blue blouses and the underclothing, which ordinary Chinese, 
however, do not wear. 

The clothes were pressed, not ironed, in a way which 
Mary and Ellen thought very funny indeed, being taken 
from the line before they were quite dry, and smoothed and 
pulled until all the wrinkles had been smoothed out; then 
they were tidily folded and the girls either placed the blouse, 
socks and under garments under a heavy stool or sat upon 
them ! It answ^ered every purpose, and the blue blouses 
looked rather better, after this sort of pressing, than if they 
had been ironed. 

Mary noticed that all the rooms were supplied with 
candles, for after supper the girls studied from seven until 
nine o'clock in the large well-lighted, well-heated school- 



i6i 



room, after which they returned to their own rooms and 
went to bed. Several of the girls had small clocks of which 
they felt quite proud, for the Chinese love clocks, not as 
a means of telling the time of day, for they rarely ever wind 
them regularly, but because they love their ticking. The 
girls in the Mission school were always careful to wind 
their clocks every morning. They were also very fond of 
pictures. A good many had photographs of relatives and 
friends hung upon the walls, just as foreign girls would 
have ; and others had gay collections of picture cards which 
the Chinese prize very highly, and these they had arranged 
quite tastefully. Every morning a teacher went the rounds, 
looking carefully over each room, and the girls occupying 
it were marked, either for neatness or untidiness, as they 
deserved. 

Mrs. Spencer could not help thinking how much pains 
the teachers had taken to teach the young girls everything 
that might help them to become good, intelligent, useful 
women, far, far better, in every way, than the poor, ignorant 
creatures they would have been had they had no such ad- 
vantages as these. 

The girls had a debating society where they spoke on 
many interesting subjects, read essays and recited in Eng- 
lish, which they spoke very well. On Sunday they went 
once to the Mission church, and to Sunday school, where 
the older girls taught classes of 3^ounger children. 

They kept their court clean and made a little game of 
this, too, getting out with their brooms and sweeping with 
all their might, until not a leaf or scrap of litter was to 
be seen. It w^as their playground, and their good teachers 
had given them a swing, see-saws, and skipping ropes, 

KROUT's china — II 



1 62 



and they played many games of their own, running and 
shouting and laughing, as active, healthy girls do every- 
where, if they are given any freedom. 

Just then the girls were quite sad ; they had lost a four- 
footed friend that they loved dearly, Don, a beautiful dog 
that had belonged to the Principal. The girls had great 
affection for Don, and Don loved them. Whenever play- 
time came he begged to go into the court to romp with 
them. Next to the Mission lived a cruel, wicked '' Yellow- 
Girdle '' man, that is, a Chinese who held a small office and 
who wore, as a badge of authority, a yellow girdle. 

He hated the school and the foreign teachers, and thought 
that Chinese girls should be taught only what they could 
learn from their mothers. When tney were building the 
teachers' house, he shrieked and screamed and beat his 
head against the wall until the police came and threatened 
to take him to prison. He hated Don, and the girls were 
always afraid that he would kill him. Don was not allowed 
to leave the court and they watched him whenever he came 
out to play with them. 

One day they went to their teacher and said : " Please 
tell Don not to eat anything that he may find lying about. 
We have told him, but he does not understand Chinese, 
so you must tell him again, in English." 

His mistress did so, but he did not understand English 
any better than Chinese; and one day they found him stiff 
and cold, lying near the wall that separated the school from 
the '' Yellow-Girdle " man's court. He had been poisoned. 
The girls could not have been more sad if it had been one 
of their number who had died. They cried bitterly and 
buried him under the big ash tree near the hospital. 



1 63 



After they had seen the school Mrs. Spencer and the 
two girls were shown through the dispensary, where the 
little woman doctor of the Ivlission receives those that are 
sick, treating their sores and hurts, giving them medicine 
and doing all she can for them. Any one may come, and 
no one is asked to pay who is too poor to do so. The 
doctor's assistant was a tall young Manchu, who had 
learned all about the different kinds of medicine, and was 
very skillful. Often as many as fifty women came in one 
afternoon for medicine for themselves or their children. 

When Mrs. Spencer bade the missionaries good-by, the 
gate keeper bowed low and said : '' They go, but they will 
come again." 

Alas! that was not to be.. Months afterwards Mary 
and Ellen remembered the school as they had seen it; the 
bright-faced industrious girls busy with their tasks, the 
court bright with sunshine and as peaceful as if the danger, 
and ruin and death even then hanging over it were things 
unknown. 



XVII. A FEAST 

THEY left Peking for Tientsin one bright morning in 
November. They would have liked to stay a few 
weeks longer, for there was still much to see. But they 
knew that they must make haste, for, in a little while, it 
would grow cold, the Pei-ho would freeze over, and the 
steamers would stop running until spring. The mouth of the 



i64 



Pei - ho is the only harbor, and when it is frozen the 
ships can not land their freight or passengers. They rode 
through the rough streets of Peking in the jolting carts 
for the last time. ^Nlr. Clifford came to the station with 
them and bought their tickets and put them safely on the 
train. 

They did not take the mail carriage as they had done 
when they came, but sat in an ordinary first-class carriage. 
The seats were of wood,, and their trunk (they had brought 







Landing at Tientsin 



but one, being wise) was placed on the platform outside the 
door. In the carriage with them was a foreign gentleman 
who told them that he had lived in China for forty years. 
His wife was a Chinese lady, and she gave the girls some 
pears and chestnuts, and they, wishing to return her kind- 
ness, gave her some small, sweet cakes which pleased her 
very much. She smiled and bowed to them, and her husband 
said that she liked foreigners. 

Tientsin is a large city on the Pei-ho which they remem- 



i65 



bered flows down to the sea at Taku. When the water is 
high steamers can come up as far as Tientsin, but it had 
been so low for months that people made the journey by the 
short railway line, by which Mrs. Spencer and the girls had 
come and would return. 

The foreign city is well built, with good sidewalks and 
streets that are well-lighted and there are fine hotels and 
handsome houses. Best of all, there are dozens of jinrikishas 
which can be used on the smooth, well-kept streets of 
Tientsin. The girls noticed that the Chinese used jinrikishas 
quite as often as the foreigners, and although they would 
not* keep their own quarter clean, they preferred to have 
their shops in the Englsh concession, just as they did in 
Shanghai. 

Mrs. Spencer and the girls spent several days in the hotel, 
resting and going out for short walks and rides. A friend 
of Mrs. Clifford's called upon them, and to their great joy 
said that she had an invitation for them from a Chinese lady 
who wished to give a feast in their honor. 

Foreigners are rarely asked to a Chinese house, especially 
foreign ladies. The women physicians who go out to China 
are almost the only persons who see the Chinese families 
in their homes, for they not only treat the poor in the 
dispensaries, but they are called in when the wives and 
daughters of mandarins and viceroys are ill. They go to 
visit them professionally, and are then asked to come as 
friends. The lady who brought them the invitation was 
a physician and her Chinese friend was a lady of high rank. 

" It will be most interesting to see such a family at home," 
said Mrs. Spencer, '' and I am sure that we never expected 
such good fortune." 



i66 



Mary and Ellen were delighted, and were so curious and 
impatient that they could hardly wait for the day of the feast 
to come. 

Carts were to be sent for them, and they arrived promptly 
the next day at noon, each accompanied by a woman servant 
who sat upon the shaft. 

Their hostess' house was in the native part of Tientsin, 
quite a long distance from the hotel. When they reached 
the gate they found their hostess, whose name was Mrs. 
Wang, with two or three of her daughters-in-law waiting 
within the court. The carts stopped at the gate and the 
women servants set small stools on the ground upon which 
the visitors stepped in getting out of the carts. 

The ladies greeted them kindly, smiling and nodding 
and shaking their own hands Chinese fashion. In the court 
were large white and pink chrysanthemums growing in 
porcelain jars. The strangest thing of all was a small, 
leafless tree which appeared to be quite dead, but which 
was planted in a blue porcelain jar. The tree was covered 
with little live birds, each tethered with a cord by one 
foot, the tips of their wings drawn up across their backs 
and tied with bits of thread to keep them from flying. 
They did not mind it, evidently, as they .hopped from twig 
to twig, twittering cheerfully, and were not frightened 
when one stopped to look at them. 

The court was large, with the usual low houses around 
three sides, and still others crossing it at right angles. 
Several beautiful trees shaded it, — ash trees that had not 
yet shed their leaves. There were a great many chrysan- 
themums, and boxes of portulaca, but the great stone-walled 
lotus ponds were filled with withering stalks and leaves. 



167 



At the door of the house in which the mother-in-law 
Hved, which was the best of all and fronted the south so 
that it had the winter sunshine, Mrs. Wang stopped, waved 
her hand and begged them to enter. The lady who had 
come with them interpreted for the party, that is, she 
explained to them what Mrs. Wang said, and told her, 
in turn, what the foreign visitors replied. 

It would not have been at all polite, according to Chinese 
ideas, if they had gone into the house at once, so Mrs. 
Spencer, who had been told what she must do, shook her 
head and begged Mrs. Wang to go first. She refused, and 
this was repeated several times, when Mrs. Spencer and 
the girls, with their friend, entered first, as it was intended 
that they should. They were asked to be seated, and this 
invitation was again urged and declined several times before 
they took the chairs that were ofifered them. 

Mrs. Wang was short and stout, with very white teeth 
and sparkling black eyes. She wore shining gold pins in 
her coal-black hair, with flowers and butterflies ; her dress 
was of black satin, with a border of flowered satin ribbon, 
buttoned with small gold buttons, two in front, and three 
lower down, at the side. Her large gold earrings were set 
with beautiful pearls, and, as she was a Manchu lady, her 
feet had never been bound. The floor of the reception 
room was paved with brick; on the ka'ng stood a cabinet 
filled with costly china and bronze, and at one side was a 
small, square table with very long legs, a short-backed, long- 
legged chair on either side of it, w4th other chairs facing 
them. When they were seated, a servant brought in tiny 
brass pipes, but, as none of the foreign visitors smoked, 
a habit which is quite common among Chinese ladies, the 



1 68 



pipes were taken away again. Then tea was brought in thin, 
delicate cups, on lacquered trays. The hostess took hers 
and begged the guests to drink, which, of course, they 
refused at first to do, as is considered the proper etiquette 
in China. When they did taste the tea they found it 
delicious, very hot, and clear, for the Chinese think that 
sugar spoils tea. It had been flavored with the dried petals 
of flowers which made it seem, as Mary said, '' almost 
like drinking some pleasant perfume." After they had told 
Mrs. Wang how old they were, which is a question which 
the Chinese always ask, her eldest son came into the reception 
room to see them, and brought with him his little boy, a 
pretty child, dressed just like his father in a blue satin frock, 
black cloth shoes, a black silk cap, with his queue braided 
smoothly and hanging down his back. He shook his own 
chubby hands, and bowed just as his father did, and wished 
them to see all his toys. One was a collection of small 
balloons which whirled round and round when it was wound 
up, and the father took it from the child and showed it to 
them himself, for grown-up Chinese like toys as much as 
children do. 

Then the little boy said in Chinese, which their friend 
repeated in English : '' Show the Great Sisters the foreign 
toy." It was brought by one of the servants — a white, 
quacking duck, of which the child was very proud. When 
the father and his little son had gone away, a servant 
came in and told Mrs. Wang that the feast was ready. 

She led the way across the court to another room. The 
table was not large, and there was no cloth. There were 
tiny plates for the hostess and her guests and the other 
dishes were like small, blue porcelain fruit-stands, and were 



169 



set out in four rows each. The dessert was eaten first, for 
in China many things seem to be the reverse of our custom. 
Hence, at dinner, the dessert comes first and the soup last, 
and the most important guest is given the ''honorable 
place," which is at the left instead of at the right of the 
hostess, as with us. The plates were very small indeed, and 
they could not be changed, no matter what was put upon 
them, because if this is done the Chinese think that the 

hostess is certain to die within 
the year. 

They did not want Mrs. 
Wang to die, but they did not 
believe the foolish omen, and 
would have been glad to have 
a clean plate when they found 
that they could not eat all 
that was set before them. For 
dessert there were pears and 
apricots, and sugared peanuts. 
Chopsticks walnuts that had been first 

fried in fat and then dipped into syrup, squares of 
stiff, red fruit marmalade, and quantities of roasted pumpkin 
seeds. '' We must have borrowed our idea of salted almonds 
from the Chinese,'' said Mrs. Spencer, for the pumpkin 
seeds were eaten all through the feast between the courses. 
" It is to pass the time,'' said Mrs. Wang. '' You do 
not eat them propertly ; let me show you." And she placed 
a flat seed between her white front teeth, gave it a quick 
crunch and the kernel came out whole. She smiled as if 
she were quite proud of her skill. 

Chopsticks, the long pointed sticks with which the Chinese 




IJO 



eat, had been placed at each plate, but the foreign visitors 
could not use them. One must be held very firmly, as we 
hold a pen, and the other so that the point can move freely. 
There is a knack in it that foreigners can acquire only with 
much practice. But they tried, and this amused Mrs. 
Wang and the daughters-in-law, who were allowed to look 
on, but were not asked to sit at table. Afterwards the girls 
could not remember all that had been offered them, — sea- 
slugs that looked like pork rind, water chestnuts which were 
svv^eet and good, bamboo sprouts, many kinds of little dump- 
lings filled with sweetmeats or chopped pork and vegetables, 
well cooked and seasoned, each dumpling gathered into a 
floury ruffle on the top, and dotted with vermilion spots; 
there were flat cakes of steamed Chinese bread, pork cooked 
in a great many ways, chicken, a duck and a fish, each 
brought on in a tureen, swimming in broth. These Mrs. 
Wang dipped into with the chopsticks with which she had 
been eating, helping first her guests and then herself. Last 
of all, they had two kinds of rice ; one sort like that which 
they had eaten at home, and another which was very much 
like tapioca. 

They were at table a long time; one course was cleared 
away and another brought on, until it seemed as if the end 
would never be reached. One great delicacy was buried 
eggs, a dish which even rich Chinese have only on great 
occasions. The girls would not have known what they 
were eating, if they had not been told. The eggs, usually 
duck eggs, are rolled in a mixture of clay, lime and chaff 
of oats and buried in the ground for several years. They 
decay, and are really what the Chinese call them, — rotten 
eggs, but the earth absorbs all the bad smell and bad 



171 



flavor so that they have only a faint salty taste. The eggs 
were of a dark green, cut in thin slices. It was well that 
Mary and Ellen did not know what they were, or they 
certainly would have declined them; but wanting to know 
just what Chinese food was like they accepted a small 
morsel of everything that was offered them. 

It was '' a feast in fours," that is, four dishes formed 
each course, and one could not be had without ordering 
the other three. Rich food for feasts is never cooked at 
home. It is sent from a restaurant, ready for the table, 
in air-tight boxes, and with vessels of boiling water with 
the hot dishes. They sat at table several hours, the hostess 
making a great noise with her lips which polite Chinese 
always do when they wish to show that they think the 
food is good. At last their friend said, as was proper, 
'' Ch'-ih pao la," which, in English means '' Eaten full." 

They were then excused and allowed to rise from the 
table. The hostess asked them to call upon one of the 
daughters-in-law whom they found in her own room, lying 
upon the hard ka'ng with her little baby by her side. 

She was greatly pleased to see the foreign ladies, and 
asked a great many questions, which is not considered bad 
manners in China. She wished to know how old they were, 
and if a foreign tailor had made Mrs. Spencer's gown 
and bonnet, which she looked at carefully. She also ad- 
mired her fan, which Mrs. Spencer begged her to keep; 
she would not do so, however, but Mrs. Spencer w^as told 
to leave the fan upon the chair when she went avv^ay. 
The Chinese lady could then accept it without '' losing face." 

Upon the wall was a cat and kittens, made of cotton wool 
and fastened on a sheet of green paper, with butterflies 



172 



in each corner. Mary and Ellen both admired the cats, 
and when they rose to look at» them more closely, Mrs. 
Wang ordered the servant to take down the cat family 
and present it to them. 

They wanted to keep it and found it hard to refuse; 
perhaps they would not have done so, even at the risk of 
being thought rude, had not their friend told them that the 
cat and kittens would certainly be sent to them the next 
day, as is the Chinese custom. Sure enough ! Next morn- 
ing a servant came, not with one, but with three of the 
charming families. 

Last of all, they were taken to the schoolroom to see 
the children at their studies. When the pupils heard the 
visitors' feet on the pavement, all the young voices struck 
up a kind of piping chant that must have astonished any 
but a Chinese teacher. But Chinese school children study 
all together, at the top of their voices, and when they 
are quiet the teacher suspects that they are idle or in 
mischief. They were learning words, that is, how to pro- 
nounce them, for they had no idea of what the words 
meant ; this they would not learn until some time afterwards. 
A little boy went up to recite, for Chinese children say their 
lessons standing, and, instead of facing the teacher, he 
turned his back, which would have been thought very rude 
in a foreign school. 

Mary and Ellen pitied the poor little pupils when they 
learned that the Chinese school children have few holidays. 
There are four great feast days, and the two weeks at the 
beginning of the Chinese New Year, but no Saturdays, no 
Sundays and no Christmas. They go to the schoolroom 
early in the morning, have a short rest at noon, and study 



173 



again all the afternoon until four or five o'clock. Chinese 
boys do not play games that furnish them exercise, for 
such games are not considered proper. The teacher was 
pale and feeble, and it was not surprising. 




A Chinese School 

They walked from the schoolroom to the stable yard, 
where the carts were waiting, and thanked Mrs. Wang 
for the lovely feast she had given them, wishing only that 
they might, in some way, return her kindness and hospitality. 



174 



XVIII. HONGKONG 

WHEN Mrs. Spencer returned to Shanghai she found 
that her husband was about to leave for Hong- 
kong, where he had been sent on business. She was very 
tired after the three months of sight-seeing in the north, 
and wished to remain in Shanghai. Ellen and Mary, how- 
ever, were ready for anything that was suggested, and, 
as there were no especial preparations to make, told their 
father that they could go with him that very day, if he 
liked. The ship did not sail for the south until the next 
afternoon, and they were given a little breathing spell, 
which, after all, they were glad enough to have. After a 
night's rest, they were fresh and full of eagerness to be off 
again. Lighter clothing would be required, for it is much 
warmer in Hongkong than in Shanghai. They had hoped 
that they would stop at Amoy and pass close to the island of 
Form.osa, which China had been forced to give up to Japan 
after the war with that country some years before. In both 
desires they were disappointed. After leaving the mouth 
of the Wusung, down which they sailed again for the 
second time, they saw no land until they sighted the rocky 
islands that lie along the southern, as well as the northern 
coast. North and south these islands are alike — bare, 
yellow crags projecting above the water and very dangerous 
for ships. Nothing grows upon them, not even the coarsest 
grass. Still, fishermen live upon them who earn a livelihood 
by catching fish in the sea. 

The harbor of Hongkong is nearly surrounded by lofty 
hills, as barren and rugged as the adjacent islands. It is 



175 



one of the most important harbors in the world, and it was 
crowded with vessels, large and small, great Pacific mail 
steamers, men-of-war, smaller ships that traded along the 
coast and in the Chinese rivers, and sampans and junks. 
The flags of England, France, Germany, Russia, Japan and 
our own country, floated at the mastheads of the various 
ships. 

At Hongkong people who go out to the east from 




Harbor of Hongkong 

Canaaa or San Francisco transship, that is, take another 
line for Manila, Australia, New Zealand, Siam or India. 
This makes Hongkong a busy and important place. It is 
an island, a mere rock like others that they had seen, and 
it belongs to Great Britain. The name of the city is really 
Victoria, but it is rarely ever called anything but Hong- 
kong, and there are many who do not know that it has 
any other name. 



176 



The streets have been cut along the face of a cliff that 
rises hundreds of feet Hke a solid wall behind the topmost 
terrace. The streets that run from the water front, which 
is broad enough for but a single street, are so steep that 
horses and carriages, and even jinrikishas, can not be used; 
people must either walk, which is very fatiguing, or must 
be carried in sedan chairs, which are like litters, except 
that they are borne upon the shoulders of men. The 
girls and their father went ashore in a launch, as there 
is no dock where passengers can be landed. 

Hongkong is unlike Shanghai in every way ; not only are 
the steep streets different from the level roads of the 
north, but everything is fresh and green and fragrant. '' I 
think it is a good deal like Honolulu," said Mary as she 
looked from the window of the comfortable house where 
they had found lodgings. " Here are the same flowers, 
though not nearly so many of them ; the same sweet smells, 
and I hear the doves cooing, just as they did in the palm trees 
there." 

They could not stay in the house a moment after they 
had had their tea, and begged their father to go with them 
for a walk. 

As they were carried through the lower streets in their 
sedan chairs from the landing stage, they had noticed the 
fine hotels, public buildings and shops ; the streets crowded 
with people of all colors and nationalities — Europeans, 
natives of India, Americans, Japanese, Siamese and tiny 
dark-skinned men, who Mr. Spencer said were Filipinos, 
for Manila is only three days' journey from Hongkong. 
Far above the roofs and spires and the uppermost terrace 
rose Victoria Peak, which had been named for the Queen 



177 



of England, as the city itself had been. Great, ragged clouds 
swept about it often hiding it from view. 

The Peak was reached by an incline railway so steep that 
Mary and Ellen were certain that they would never dare 
to make the ascent. They thought better of this after they 
had been in Hongkong for a few days, and were glad that 
they had been able to overcome their fears. It would have 



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been too bad to miss seeing Hongkong, its encircling hills 
and fine harbor, from the brow of the Peak. 

For their walk they went up the road to the park, stopping 
now and then to rest. The path from the street to the park 
had been thickly planted on either hand with feathery bam- 
boos, tropical shrubs and vines, amongst which birds were 
singing sweetly. The camellia plants were the most beau- 
tiful of all, the long branches bending to the ground with 
the waxen flowers — white, pink, and deep crimson. 

KROUT^S CHINA — 12 



178 



''They are exactly like roses/' said Ellen, ''but they 
have no fragrance/' The Chinese admire camellias and 
are most successful in raising them. The natives are 
allowed to walk in the park in Hongkong, which they 
are not permitted to do in Shanghai. The girls watched 
them strolling quietly along the paths, careful not to walk 




Public Park, Hongkong 



Upon the grass, stopping to look at the flowers, but never 
handling them. " They are quite as well-behaved as people 
at home," said Mary. It was delightful to see grass once 
more, after the naked fields of the north, though that in 
the park in Hongkong had been made to grow only with 
much pains. 



179 



'' The same may be said of everything here," said Mr. 
Spencer. "It is hard to beUeve that this was once a naked 
rock, and that the bamboos, the fine trees, the camelUas and 
roses have been brought here by foreigners, just as the trees 
and shrubs were taken to Hawaii." 

From the park they saw the roofs of the city far below 
them in the midst of dense green foHage. The ships in 
the bay were Hke toy ships, and people moved to and fro 
like ants about an ant-hill. 

In the evening they went for a ride in jinrikishas, which 
they took at the foot of the street where they lodged. They 
followed the sharp curves of the bay for several miles, 
the smooth water on one hand and the naked cliffs on the 
other, with just space for the road between them. They 
saw the Happy Valley, where sports are held, — the annual 
games which every one goes to see,^ — and they stopped at 
a little tea house before going back to the city, so that the 
jinrikisha men might rest. The air was mild and soft, 
like that of a warm, spring evening, and as it grew dark 
they heard, far away, the chimes of the English cathedral. 

When their father had finished his business and was ready 
to take them up the incline railway to the top of the Peak, 
they had ceased to be afraid, and, as the car climbed higher 
and higher up the steep track, the city unrolled below them 
like a panarama. 

On the top of the Peak they found several large houses, 
together with a hospital, and a hotel where people come in 
summer, when it is hot and damp in the city below, for 
in summer it rains in Hongkong almost every day. The 
hospital was built for the English soldiers who may be 
taken ill in the barracks, down in the citv, where there 



i8o 



are always a great many English troops. They are sent 
out to Hongkong from India or England, and then ordered 
to other posts in the East, wherever they may be needed. 
Around one of the houses on the Peak which belonged 
to a rich merchant, was a large garden in which, how- 
ever, only a few hardy flowers and shrubs would grow, 
as the wind blew so constantly that it bent and broke all 
but the toughest stalks. In the garden were many kinds 
of animals in cages, and a great variety of caged birds, 
the splendid golden pheasant of China amongst them. 

Visitors are allowed to walk in the gardens and look at 
the birds and animals, and no one teased or fed them. 

From the highest point Mary and Ellen could see the ocean 
which encircles Hongkong on every side, and the main- 
land which is not far away. On the mainland is the 
peninsula of Kowlun which means the '' Nine Dragons." 
The peninsula also belongs to England. They could see 
the two suburbs, Stanley and Kowlun. A busy town has 
sprung up at Kowlun where there are large docks at which 
ships can put in for repairs and fit out for long voyages. 
At the time of the war wath Spain some of our ships, which 
were white as our warships are in time of peace, were re- 
painted at the Kowlun docks a dull, gray hue, so that they 
might not be seen by the Spaniards until they could come 
within close range. 

There is one quarter of Kowlun where people from 
India have settled, and where Mary and Ellen were taken 
by their father before they went back to Shanghai. It 
was like a bit of real India, with bazaars, silversmiths 
and coppersmiths working at the door of the shops at little 
forges, and slim, delicate women wrapped in white veils 



i8i 



and mantles, their arms loaded with silver bracelets, ears and 
nostrils pierced and weighted with hoops of yellow gold. 

From the Peak, Kowlun did not appear half so large as 
it really is. Mr. Spencer told them that the climate is 
better than in Hongkong, and that many people prefer to 
live there, rather than in the large settlement. 

They dined at the hotel on the Peak, in which, at that 
season, there were not so many guests as there would be 
during the hot season from March to October. The day 
had been quite clear, but sometimes whole weeks pass 
when the rain and clouds obscure the Peak, quite hiding 
the landscape and the harbor. They were fortunate 
to have had so good a day, for, at sunset, which they had 
hoped would be fine, the sky was suddenly overcast. A 
thick mist soaked everything like fine rain, and at night 
the clothing of the guests was taken to the '' drying room." 
in the hotel where it remained until morning. 

In answer to a question of Mary's, her father told her 
that Honkkong is governed by a body of men, eight in 
number, advised and aided by a council of fourteen, who 
make w^hat laws are required. '' The Governor of the 
island," he said, '' is sent out from England, as in all other 
English colonies. Some day, no doubt, the people will 
select their own governor; and, even now, if they should 
be dissatisfied, he would probably be recalled. Such a thing 
as this rarely happens, nowadays. Good men, generally, are 
sent, and they are much respected by the people." 

The girls learned, too, that there were good schools in 
Hongkong, the foreign schools being much better than 
those of Shanghai, although Shanghai is called the 
'' Metropolis of the Far East." There are more than three 



l82 



hundred thousand people in Hongkong, two thirds of them 
being Chinese who Hve peaceably in their own quarter. The 
great objection to them is that their houses are so dirty that 
terrible diseases, like plague and cholera, break out among 
them, and it is hard to make them keep their persons and 
houses clean. The disease spreads but little among white 
people, who have proper food, bathe often, and who are 
not afraid. Hundreds of the Chinese die of fear at such 
times, who would escape were they more courageous. 



XIX. CANTON 

LIKE Shanghai, Canton upon the map appears to be 
situated upon the seacoast. It stands upon the banks 
of the Pearl River, and is really a hundred miles from 
Hongkong. The water of the Pearl River is salt and 
it is afifected by the tides a good many miles from its 
mouth. More than one million people, most of them Chinese, 
live in Canton, where there are also a large number of for- 
eigners. But, as in other treaty ports, that is, ports at which 
the Chinese government has consented to allow foreign ves- 
sels to trade, the foreigners live by themselves, outside the 
walls of the native city. 

Canton was the first port opened to ships from Europe, 
and the Portuguese were the first foreigners to trade wnth 
China. This was in the year 1516. The Portuguese did 
more than trade, however. Many of them settled in China, 
and their descendants are still living in Macao, which is 



1 83 



considered one of the most beautiful cities in all China, 
and which Mr. Spencer and the two girls visited on their 
return from Hongkong. 

They sailed in the evening on a small river steamer, the 
Fatshan. One part of the vessel was set apart for foreign 
passengers, and other cabins in another part of the steamer 
were for the Chinese. Many of the Chinese also spread 
their mats on the deck where they drank tea, ate rice, or 
smoked and gambled. Piles of coin were heaped upon a 
piece of cloth around which the gamblers squatted, playing 
with tiny cards not more than an inch in length, or with 
boards somewhat like backgammon boards. Almost all 
Chinese are gamblers, and nothing can cure them of this 
dreadful vice. On voyages across the ocean, as on smaller 
steamers like the Fatshan, they gamble day and night, many 
men leaving the ship beggared, having lost all the money 
they had saved after years of hard work, and even their 
bedding and clothing. The deck where the gamblers sat 
was lighted with flaring oil lamps, and their dark faces 
and glittering eyes could be seen anxiously watching every 
card that was tossed on the cloth. 

It was light enough to see the harbor as the Fatshan 
made its way among the sampans, junks and foreign ships, 
passing nearly around the island and entering the broad 
mouth of the river. When it grew too dark to see the 
shores Mary and Ellen went to bed and did not wake again 
until broad daylight. The steamer was not moving and 
they heard shrill shouting and screaming. Mary was 
startled to see a dark face pressed close against the porthole, 
looking at her as she lay in her berth. They had reached 
Canton, and the watermen had come on board, bargaining 



1 84 



to take the passengers ashore in their sampans. It was not 
pleasant to be stared at, so ^lary slipped out of the berth 
and drew the curtain over the porthole, called Ellen and 
they were soon both dressed. It was much colder than 
at Hongkong, the sky was a dull gray, and a damp, keen 
wind was blowing, which made the girls shiver, warmly 
as they were dressed. They pitied the poor Chinese, espe- 
cially the women who rowed many of the boats, thinly 
clad in blouses and loose drawers of blue cotton. Strans^elv 
enough, there were numbers who wore no shoes, those 
who ya-lo-ed, or rowed with their feet, which were purple 
and swollen w4th the cold. Still, they were smiling and 
uncomplaining. 

Mr. Spencer selected a sampan rowed by two women, 
with a fat, black-eyed baby sitting on a mat in the stern. 
When they reached the landing stage ^Ir. Spencer gave 
the baby a piece of money, at which its mother smiled and 
nodded, and the other woman carried their bags and guided 
them to the hotel. They intended to leave .Canton in the 
evening, and there was no time to be lost, but first they had 
a good breakfast before setting out on the day's sight-seeing. 

In half an hour the guide was ready, for it is not 
considered quite safe for foreigners to go through the 
native city alone. He brought with him three sedan chairs 
and a company of bearers, and they set out, ^Ir. Spencer 
taking the lead. 

Canton is quite like other Chinese cities, with narrow 
streets, gay shops, crowds of people and dreadful odors. 
They saw some strange buildings with towering roofs, 
and ]\Ir. Spencer asked Ah Cum John, the guide, what they 
were. Ah Cum John spoke excellent English for a Chinese 



i85 



who had never been out of China. He told Mr. Spencer 
that they were pawn shops, and that they belonged to the 
great Li Hung Chang, who had once visited the United 
States. 

Even well-to-do Chinese think nothing of pawning their 
bronze and porcelain, their silk clothes and ornaments, 
when they require money which they can not get in any 

other way. There are 
many pawn shops in all 
the Chinese cities. 
Those that belonged to 
Li Hung Chang were 
almost like fortresses, 
and on the roof were 
huge cauldrons from 
which men stationed 
there could pour boiling 
oil or water on the 
crowds below, should 
the building ever be at- 
tacked in the riots that 
often occur in China. 
The streets are quite 
dark, because the houses 
are so close together and there are so many swinging 
signs hanging from the balconies. The streets are well 
paved but they are damp and slippery. They saw pro- 
cessions of blind beggars, walking one behind the other, 
each with his hand on the shoulder of the man in front 
of him. Another queer procession passed them, — half a 
dozen coolies carrying in baskets on their shoulders roasted 




Street in Canton 



1 86 



pigs that were done to a turn, and as glossy as if they 
had been varnished. The roast pigs were ordered for a 
wedding feast, but not more than three or four would be 
used. The others had only been hired for show, so that 
the man who gave the feast might seem richer than he 
really was. 

In the shops they saw hundreds of cedar coffins. Men 
were carving sandal wood and ivory; and they heard the 
tap-tap-tap of the wooden mallets with which the gold 
beaters were beating the metal into thin sheets of gold leaf. 

Tons of gold leaf are used in lettering the heavy swinging 
signs, in decorating the altars and images which one sees 
in every shop, as well as in the temples, and in ornamenting 
boxes of lacquer, fans, and scrolls. A great deal of the 
gold comes from the rich mines of Manchuria. 

Mary saw a little white porcelain figure of Buddha which 
she wanted to buy. The vender, who had spread out his 
wares on the ground, asked two dollars for it. It was not 
worth so much, and Ah Cum John shook his head. 

'' I will get it for you bime-by,'' he said ; and while 
they were loking at some carvings in a shop, he ran away 
and presently returned with the Buddha. 

'' I buy him for fifteen cents," he said. 

In one shop they saw men inlaying silver brooches and 
bracelets with the blue-green feathers of the Chinese king- 
fisher. The design is etched upon the silver, and in this 
bits of the bright plumage are fastened with cement. It 
looked like the burnished cloisonne which they had seen 
in Peking, or like colored metal with a sheen of gold and 
green. Mary bought a pretty brooch, and Ellen a box 
covered with dragons, for their mother. 



i87 



They visited the Examination Halls, which, with their 
brick cells, are like the examination halls in Peking. They 
passed the execution ground which was filled with jars, 
large and small, a potter having his shop in the rear of 
the place. Four pirates had been beheaded here a few days 
before. In spite of all that has been done, the coast and 
rivers of China are still infested with pirates, who are bold 
and fearless, and who are constantly committing the most 
terrible crimes. On the Fatshan, as on the steamer that 




Temple of the Five Hundred Genii 

plied between Shanghai and Tientsin, they had seen racks 
filled with rifles in the saloon, or gangway, where they had 
been placed loaded so as to be ready at a moment's notice. 
These were for defense against pirates. 

One of the interesting places which travelers ahvays 
visit is the Temple of the Five Hundred Genii. The temple 
is dirty, however, and the five hundred genii, ranged on their 
altars, are shabby and ugly. 



i88 



They were to have their tiffin at the Seven-Story Pagoda, 
and, on the way stopped to go through that strangest city 
of all cities in the world — the City of the Dead. It is 
walled, with gates that are guarded by watchful gate 
keepers. Within there are streets, with Chinese houses fac- 
ing each other, and at the doors the most lovely chrysanthe- 
mums blooming in porcelain jars. It is a real city, but a 
city where no sounds are heard; where no one comes or 
goes but the priests and the white-robed mourners ; where 
there are neither carts nor horses to be seen ; where no 
one is buying or selling, for the houses are the houses of 
the dead, and the whole city is filled, not with the living, 
busy and happy in their homes, but with the dead lying 
in their coffins. Contradictory as so many things seem in 
this queer land, the cities of the living are dirty and dismal, 
while this city of the dead is bright, clean and almost 
cheerful. At one door they saw^ a small fir tree, the boughs 
hung full of dreadful porcelain eyes that glared at them 
fiercely. '' I suppose the eyes are to keep off the evil 
spirits," said Ellen. 

Am Cum John laughed and said, '' Yes ; " but even 
well-educated Chinese who pretend to laugh at evil spirits 
are really afraid of them. 

In each of the small, gray houses along the wide streets 
are two rooms. The inner one is fitted up with an altar, 
where the family come and offer sacrifices of wine, rice 
and chicken; the ceiling is hung with paper money and 
the banners which were carried in the procession when the 
coffin was brought to the City of the Dead, and which will 
be used again when it is carried to the grave. In the outer 
room stand the coffins, for in some houses there are three 



i89 



or four. Each is of cedar, lacquered and polished and cov- 
ered with a pall of thick, quilted, scarlet cloth, and rests 
upon trestles. Only those whose families are rich can be 
brought to the City of the Dead, where the rooms are hired, 
and rent must be paid as long as the house is occupied ; for 
the coffins are kept there while the geomancer is hunting a 
lucky place for the grave. If the family of the dead man or 
woman is very rich, the geomancer often does not find the 
''lucky place" for months or years; he does not wish to 
find it, as he is being paid a good salary, which w^ould cease 
when the place for the grave is finally decided upon. 

In one of the houses they saw a large and splendid coffin, 
with a smaller one beside it. Mary and Ellen did not shrink 
when Ah Cum John turned back the thick, wadded covering, 
for people Who travel in China grow used to death, because 
there are graves and coffins almost everywhere. 

Ah Cum John told them that the two lacquered coffins 
were those of the wife of a mandarin and her son. The 
coffin of the wife had been there for fifteen years, and 
that of the son for ten years, and no one could tell when 
they would be buried as the geomancer was being so well 
paid. 

They climbed the steep staircase of the Seven-Story 
Pagoda and found a restaurant on the uppermost floor, 
where fifty or more Chinese were drinking tea. There was 
an altar in the room upon which sat two huge, ferocious 
gods, with two more upon the floor at the right and two 
at the left. A table was spread for Mr. Spencer and the 
girls within the railing before the altar of the gods. '' They 
are not cheerful company," said Mary, '' but I suppose we 
can endure them for a little while." The Chinese neglect 



190 



their gods and treat them with a good deal of disrespect. 
The garments of these were ragged and faded, and their 
long black beards were gray with dust. 

From a little balcony they looked out upon the broad 
river winding through the level plain, green with rice fields, 
until it was lost among the distant hills. It was covered 
with thousands of boats, some moving up and down, and 
other thousands anchored side by side along the low banks, 




Boats at Canton 

for Canton has the largest boat population of any city in 
China. 

'' Why do they live on the water where it is so cold 
and damp?" Mary asked her father, ''Why do they not 
find some place upon the land — in the country, as people 
do at home? " 

'' There is no place for them," her father answered, '' there 
is scarcely land enough now; a Chinese farm is only a few 
acres. Not an inch of ground can be spared. The farmers 
themselves do not always live on their land, but more often 



191 



in small villages, walking every morning to their fields, 
which are sometimes eight or nine miles distant." 

They did not return to the hotel, but went back to the 
steamer, for they had arranged to make the return trip by 
daylight, so that they might see the river. 

They started very early, and the girls were particularly 
interested in the great flocks of ducks that were being 
driven by boatmen, as herdsmen drive sheep, and in the 
heavy barges which were also crowded with the quacking 
creatures. They reached Macao at noon and were still 
forty miles from Hongkong. The Portuguese settlement 
is on a peninsula on the southeastern coast of Hiang- 
shan, a large island not far from the mainland. When 
the Portuguese first came to China this island had been 
given to them for helping the Chinese overcome a fierce 
robber who had his hiding place there. After the robber 
had been captured and the Portuguese settlement founded, 
the Chinese showed their real feeling for them by building 
a strong wall across the island, v/hich would keep the 
foreigners within the boundaries of their own concession. 

Macao is charming, situated as it is upon a rolling plain, 
shut in by lofty hills. The two forts, which still remain, 
are picturesque, but nowadays would not be very useful 
as a means of defense. The . flat-roof ed houses painted 
green, pink and blue are set in the midst of trees and 
shrubbery, — the beautiful gardens which the Portuguese 
cultivate with great skill. This they do wherever they 
live, for they are an industrious, peaceable people, happy 
if they have a thatched roof over their heads and a bit of 
ground upon which they manage to raise enough for their 
large families. 



192 



Mr. Spencer, Mary and Ellen went ashore, and hiring 
jinrikishas went out to the Public Gardens where almost 
every plant that grows in China, the East Indies and Aus- 
tralia can be seen. Part of the gardens have been left in a 
natural state, and here they found a little grotto in which 
it was said that Camoens, a great Portuguese writer who 
had been banished from his native country over four hun- 
dred years ago, had written one of his great works, the 
Lusiad. They saw the churches, the Cathedral and hospital 
and the Praya Grande^ or Great Promenade, where the 
people of Macao come in the evening to enjoy the fresh 
air, to see and to be seen. It was almost deserted now, 
and there were very few people about the Governor's palace 
and the official buildings which are not far away. The 
main street is given over to pretty shops, and here, too, 
are the various consulates, close to each other. 

Macao was once the most important port in China, from 
which the greater part of all the tea raised in the country 
was shipped to Europe. But Hongkong has drawn away 
its trade, and Macao has become a dull, sleepy place, but 
still pretty, with its gayly painted houses and blossoming 
gardens. 

They reached Hongkong in the evening before dark. 
As they went ashore, Mary and Ellen stopped a moment 
to watch the coolies emptying hundreds of live fish through 
a long net, shaped like a great bag, into boats moored along- 
side the steamer. Some of the fish were bought by small 
dealers who rowed ashore as fast as they could and ran 
all the way to the market so that they might get the highest 
prices, before the rest of the catch arrived. 

The next day they sailed for Shanghai. Mr. and Mrs. 



193 



Spencer decided not to take a house until spring and 
afterwards were very glad that they had made this decision ; 
they had good reason then once more to change their 
plans. ' Mary and Ellen were sent to an English school, 




Street Peddlers in Hongkong 

where they studied all the more willingly after their long 
vacation. There was plenty of amusement after school 
hours and on Saturdays, and they made many agreeable 
friends among their schoolmates. 



KROUT S CHINA — I3 



194 



XX. THE YANGTZE AND THE TEA COUNTRY 

IN April Mr. Spencer found that it would be necessary 
for him to go to Hankau, an important city on the 
Yangtze River, six hundred miles from Shanghai. 

Fine steamers run all the way, and if one wishes to go 
still further, there are smaller boats from Hankau to 
Ichang, another important town on the upper waters of 
the great river, among the mountains. 

Unlike the crowded little ship which had carried them 
to Taku, the river steamer was furnished with every comfort 
and convenience. 

As it was vacation, Mary and Ellen went with their 
mother and father. The girls had studied hard all winter 
and they looked forward to the trip up the Yangtze with 
great pleasure. 

They went on board the steamer in the evening at the 
jetty on the Bund, but had to wait for the rise of the tide to 
float them across the shoals and quicksands at the mouth 
of the river. When morning came, they could hardly 
believe that they were on a river, except that the steamer 
moved rapidly ahead, with no pitching or rolling, whereas, 
if they had been on the open sea, they would have been 
roughly tossed about by the waves. No land was in sight, 
for just above the quicksands not far from the mouth the 
Yangtze is seventeen miles wide. 

After a time they saw, far away, the gray-green foliage 
of ash and willow, for the trees were just coming into leaf; 
then a pagoda, which stood like a lighthouse on a rocky 
island, and, finally, other pagodas and forts which had 
been built by the Chinese during the war with Japan. There 



195 



were hundreds of Chinese on the lower deck where they 
chattered and gambled, ate rice and drank tea, making the 
place very dirty. 

There were no landing wharfs, and the Chinese passen- 
gers were taken ashore at towns and villages in flat barges 
which came out for them, bringing other passengers who 
were going on to towns farther up the river. 

The country was now very different from what it had 
been in the autumn when they arrived in China. The few 
trees, — the willows, ash trees and bamboos, were putting 
out their new leaves ; flowers were beginning to bloom, and 
there were patches of plum and peach blossoms like white 
and rose-colored mist. The fields were as green as emerald, 
and birds were singing and soaring overhead. The people 
w^ere happier and lighter-hearted, — glad in China, as every- 
where else in the world, for the return of spring after 
the long winter with its freezing mists and frost. 

Near Chinkiang they passed two famous islands called 
Tsiao Shan, " Silver Island," and Kin Shan, '' Golden Isl- 
and, "" which are held sacred by the Chinese Buddhists. They 
were once covered with temples, terraces and memorial 
arches, and had been visited by the great Ming Emperors 
and by the Manchus who succeeded them. They are now 
deserted, and their temples are in ruins, having been torn 
down in the wars that have swept over the country. 

Chinkiang is at the mouth of the Grand Canal, where it 
joins the Yangtze, and it was once a thrifty and pros- 
perous place, but it has suffered from the rebellions and 
riots that have ruined its trade, and driven many of the 
inhabitants away. 

One may go from Chinkiang south to Suchau, which 



196 



Ellen and Mary had visited when they made the journey 
in the house boat, and from Suchau on to Hangchau, where 
a great part of the silk raised in China is manufactured. 
To the north one may go to Peking by the Grand Canal, 
a great waterway, that is like a smooth road, which is 
never rough, never muddy, over which pass millions of 
boats in the course of a vear. Thev saw at a distance 




Nanking 



Nanking, which had been the capital of China before the 
Alanchu rulers moved the capital to Peking. 

Mr. Spencer said that he supposed Nanking had been built 
at a safe distance from the river in order to be safe from 
the floods. It had once been one of the most splendid 
cities in the empire, the residence of the court and the 
Emperor, drawing around it all the noted writers, artists 
and statesmen in China. The Tae-Ping Rebellion, or war 
between the government and a great faction pretending 



197 



to be Christian, was especially destructive to Nanking, 
where the rebel Hung Siu-tshuen, who called himself the 
'' King of Heaven," held his court after he had driven 
the real rulers away. The rebels burned and looted all the 
cities in that and the neighboring provinces, and tore down 
the pagoda which was built of white porcelain, and which 
will never be restored, because they do not build any more 
pagodas in China. 

At school during the winter Mary and Ellen had studied 
about the Tae-Ping Rebellion, and they knew that it had 
lasted thirteen years, that half the provinces in the empire 
had been laid waste, and that fifty millions of lives had been 
destroyed. 

The rebellion was not checked until the Emperor's troops 
were organized and drilled by an American named Ward 
who was killed in one of the battles. The Chinese troops 
were then led by a great English soldier who afterwards 
became known by the name of '' Chinese Gordon." 

The Americans have established a hospital, schools and 
a university at Nanking, where hundreds of Chinese boys 
and girls are being educated. At this point the face of 
the country changes. There are green hills and the river 
banks are bordered by giant reeds, like those that they 
had seen along the Pei-ho. There were more trees, verdant 
fields, comfortable farmhouses, fat cattle, and fewer graves. 

Two rocky islands which they saw beyond Nanking are 
called '' Little Orphan " and '' Big Orphan " and the Chi- 
nese have many stories about them. Each island has a 
gray pagoda on its summit. The sheet of silvery water 
which could be seen shimmering and shining under the blue 
sky, Mr. Spencer said was Lake Foyang, one of the most 



198 

beautiful and famous lakes in all China. On its eastern 
shore is Jao-chau, where the fine porcelains made at the 
great potteries of King-te-chen, built by the Mings, are 
sent for shipment to Peking for the Emperor's palaces. 
Even to this day, foreigners are hardly allowed to visit 
the potteries which, however, will never again be what they 
once were. The porcelain made there ages ago was far 
more beautiful, both in color and design, than Sevres 
or Dresden. 

The French priests, whom the Chinese received kindl/, 
and who taught them to make the great bronze globes 
and astronomical instruments which the girls had seen upon 
the walls of Peking, had also taught the potters how to 
make a richer glaze and new and more brilliant colors. 

The heart of the tea-growing regions of China is around 
the shores of Lake Poyang, and the great central market 
of the district is Hankau. Ships formerly came up the 
river to load for the western market, but even the tea trade 
has fallen off, and the tea is sent to Shanghai and from 
there shipped to Europe and America. 

They reached Hankau in less than a week after leaving 
Shanghai and found, to their great joy, a spacious English 
quarter, the English concession, which Mrs. Spencer said 
made her feel quite at home. It was clean and cheerful with 
wide, v/ell-kept roads, shade trees, flower beds and a broad 
parapet, with a stone embankment forty feet high to protect 
the water front. In spite of this, at high water, when the 
floods come down, the river rises and spreads over the 
Bund, up and down which people can row in boats. A 
long flight of stone steps leads from the river bank to the 
Bund above. 



199 



There was a good hotel where they found comfortable 
rooms, although the busy season had just commenced. 
The tea tasters were arriving for the first and best picking, 
and would be kept in Hankau at their work until mid- 
summer and longer. The tea tasters are nearly all Eng- 
lishmen and they decide the quality of the tea, which 
must be tested before it is packed for shipping. The 
leaves are put in a cup, boiling water poured over them, 
and the liquid is then taken into the mouth but is never 
swallowed. Although the tasters are careful not to swallow 
the tea, before the work is done for the season they feel 
the effects of it very much, and after ten or fifteen years 
are often broken down in health. They receive large sala- 
ries and work but a few hours each day. During the 
busy season, which lasts about six weeks, they can drink 
no spirits nor take any sort of food that might blunt their 
sense of taste, which becomes, with training, very acute. 

After his business was attended to, Mr. Spencer took 
them some distance down the river again in order that they 
might see the fields in which the tea is raised. 

'' A good deal of moisture is required to raise tea,'' he 
said, " and for this reason, as well as on account of the 
colder winters, tea cannot be raised in the north.'' 

The farmer, to whom one of the tea tasters introduced 
them, was quite polite and willingly showed them through 
his fields. 

'' Tea is a variety of the camellia which you saw in Hong- 
kong," said Mr. Spencer. '' It would grow into a small 
tree, if it were not cut and pruned every year. The plants 
are raised from seed, transplanted in the second year, and 
are never allowed to grow more than three feet high, — more 



200 



often but a foot and a half. They are straggling, stunted 
shrubs that look as if they were dying, so thickly are they 
grown with moss and lichens. The plants do not require any- 
thing like the care that must be given to rice, sweet potatoes, 
and other vegetables. They must be planted on land where 
there is good drainage, usually hillsides, and must be hoed 
frequently. The little shrubs are planted in rows about 
three feet apart. The flower is white, and soon falls, and, 
unlike the blossom of the coffee, has no fragrance. The 




Picking Tea in China 

best tea is the first picking, the downy, tender leaves which 
the Chinese call Pekoe, which means ' White Hairs.' 

" The leaf of the tea is not like that of the camellia, but is 
small and thin. [Most of the Pekoe is sent to Russia and 
EnglarKl. Half-opened leaves, gathered before the heavy 
spring rains begin, are called Young Hyson, which means 
' Rains before.' The bushes are stripped of their leaves 
from the middle of [May until June, when the plants are 
most thicklv covered. Great care is taken not to destroy 



20I 



the tender buds at the ends of the twigs, which would stop 
the growth of the plant. The first picking, the fine Pekoe, 
is very carefully gathered, but for the second picking women 
and children are hired by the farmers who sell their crops 
to middlemen ; they, in turn, dispose of it to buyers at 
Hankau and other markets. 

" Tea shrinks so much in the curing process that for every 




Tea Bales for Russia 



fifteen pounds of green leaves only five pounds of the cured 
leaves remain. The leaves from which green tea is prepared 
are spread out to dry for a short time after picking. Then 
they are gently shaken in a metal pan over a charcoal fire ; 
they are then spread upon a bamboo table, squeezed into 
balls, passed on from hand to hand, broken apart, pressed 



202 



into shape and again separated. They are then once more 
dried over the fire. When the tea is ready for packing, 
having been sifted last of all to free it from dust, it is 
placed in air-tight metal boxes, soldered securely, and these 
in turn are placed in wooden boxes encased in matting 
marked with Chinese letters. In this shape it is received 
by tea merchants in Europe and the United States. 

'' Black tea is allowed to wilt over night before it is dried 
in the metal pans. It does not contain so much oil as the 
green tea. The coarser leaves and even small twigs are 
cured and pressed into ' bricks,' and this goes to southern 
Russia and Mongolia where it is boiled with milk and 
butter like a sort of soup. 

'' China," Mr. Spencer continued, '' is losing her tea 
trade, which has fallen off since tea has been grown in 
India and Ceylon where machinery is used, and where it 
can be raised more cheaply. The Chinese do all the work 
by hand, from planting the seeds to transplanting the young 
shrubs, and picking and curing the crop.'' 

Mr. Spencer would have liked to go on to Ichang, among 
the mountains to the west, but he learned while at Hankau 
that the Boxers, of whom they had heard a good deal while 
they were in Peking, had grown very bold, and were threat- 
ening to drive out the foreigners wherever they could find 
them. At that time there were very few Boxers in or 
near Hankau, but it was plain to be seen that the Chinese 
in general sympathized with them, and would help them 
if they could. 

The English people and the American consul advised 
Mr. Spencer not to go any farther up the river, as he might 
not find it an easy matter to get back. Had he been alone 



203 



he would have gone, but he was not willing to risk the safety 
of his wife and daughters. So they went back to Shanghai, 
and it was v/ell that they did so, for all the foreigners 
who could do so soon left the river towns, and many of 
those v/ho remained lost their lives. 



XXL CONCLUSION 

WHEN the trouble in Peking grew worse and Shanghai 
itself was threatened by the murderous Boxers, 
Mr. Spencer felt that it was no longer safe to remain there. 
His business was at a standstill, for all work in the interior 
had ceased. Even the Chinese who were really friendly 
to foreigners did not dare to help them in any way. They 
would not sell them food or have any dealings with them 
whatsoever. It was known that hundreds of Chinese were 
leaving the city daily to join the Boxers. 

Large ships that might have defended the city could 
not cross the Wusung bar. To the north, south, and west, 
were provinces where there were millions of people who 
were becoming more and more unfriendly to the foreigners 
and who were anxious to drive them out of the country. 

With many other Americans living in Shanghai, Mr. 
Spencer sailed with his family for Nagasaki in Japan, where 
they remained through the summer. Early in the autumn 
Mrs. Clifford joined them and she had a sad story to 
relate. Her husband was still in Peking. She had left, 
with other refugees, escorted by a company of soldiers 



204 



to Tungchau, twelve miles east of the city gate. Thence 
they were taken in boats to Tientsin, which was also 
occupied by soldiers, much of it being in ruins. 

'' Early in the spring/' she said, '' we noticed that Peking 
was full of rough, insolent men who grew bolder and more 
and more unruly. There were reports of murders and 
lawlessness in the country, and the Chinese troops who 
were sent out by the Empress Dowager did no good. By 
this time the Boxers, who were pledged to kill the foreigners, 
had raised an army, and in May they marched to Peking. 
While pretending to be friendly to the foreigners, it is now 
known that the Empress Dowager and the court secretly 
aided the Boxers. The country in every direction was 
filled with savage Boxers, and early in June the Japanese 
minister was murdered, for the Boxers hated the Japanese 
even more than Americans or Europeans. Three days after 
this, all the foreign houses were attacked, and all the 
missions, except the Methodist mission, were destroyed. 

'' This mission, as you remember," said Mrs. Clifford, 
'' was well built, the strong brick houses being defended by 
heavy gates and high walls. There were a few soldiers, 
marines from the ships at Taku, who had been sent north 
when the trouble became serious, and they helped to defend 
the mission. They were posted on the walls ready to shoot 
any Chinese that approached too near. In this way they 
held out for some time, but at last the missionaries and 
their families had to go, with all the other foreigners, to 
the British Legation, where they were comparatively safe. 
Our own Legation was a common Chinese house, with 
other buildings like it in the compound ; but the walls 
were not strong enough to keep out the Boxers, had any 



205 



foreigners been foolish enough to have remained there. 
Every foreign building in Peking, except the hotel, was 
burned, — the banks, churches, missions, the Customhouse 
and the Post Office. The pleasant house that you visited 
at the ]Methodist Mission, the schools and hospital, are all 
a heap of ruins and it would be hard to tell even where the 
buildings once stood. The railway and telegraph lines 
between Tientsin and Peking wxre destroyed, so that no 




(Copyright, 1899, by J. C. Hemment.) 

Students' Quarters, British Legation 

one could get away, nor could messages be sent. On June 
20, the German minister. Baron von Ketteler, was killed. 
He had started to see the Chinese authorities and to ask 
their protection for the foreigners who were detained in 
Peking, and he was shot in the street by a Manchu officer 
of high rank. The Empress Dowager asked the foreigners 
to leave the capital, promising to send with them an escort 
of soldiers to Tientsin. But the foreigners, who had lived 



2o6 



in China a long time, knew that they could not trust the 
Empress. She was really helping the Boxers, it was 
thought, and, once outside the city walls, the foreigners 
would have been murdered, and the Empress would have 
said, no doubt, that she had been unable to prevent it. 

'' They refused to go, and the people from all the legations, 
men, women and children, with a small force of marines, 
and a great number of native Christians shut themselves 
up in the British Legation. They had brought with them food 
and clothing, and mules and horses which they were after- 
wards obliged to eat. The Boxers surrounded them and for 
weeks they lived shut in, with bullets whistling about their 
ears, shells bursting over their heads, and the walls pierced 
and broken with cannon balls. Every one was very brave, 
even the children. The women made bags out of cloth, silk, 
velvet, and anything that they could find, which were filled 
with sand and piled about the doors and windows. In these 
sand bags bullets buried themselves and did no harm. When 
the Boxers could not break down the walls or batter in the 
gates, they tried to set fire to the Legation by burning build- 
ings just outside the compound; but the wind blew the 
flames away, and once more the foreigners were saved. 

" You have already heard how the soldiers of the Allies, 
— Great Britain, America, France, Germany, Russia, and 
Japan, — finally landed from the ships at Taku, ordered 
by their governments to march to Peking and rescue the 
Legations. It was not an easy thing to do. The weather 
was burning hot, there was no shade, and food and water 
were scarce. But they reached Tientsin and saved the 
people there, who were also in great danger. Then they 
pushed on to the north, fighting all the way. 



207 



'' The people in Peking had almost given up hope of 
rescue. They had concluded that the outside world did not 
know of their peril, although they had sent faithful Chinese 
messengers through the Boxer lines, begging for relief. 
They did not know until afterwards that the whole world 
was in the greatest anxiety lest they should all be murdered 
before the army could reach them. 

" The stock of provisions had run very low ; there was 
not much food left. The mules, horses and even dogs had 
been killed and eaten. The Chinese had several cannon, and 
with these they had injured the Legation walls so much that 
the Boxers could not have been kept out much longer. They 
had taken possession of a tower overlooking the compound, 
from which they were able to pick ofif men in the Legation 
grounds. The brave American, Captain Myers, told the 
marines that the tower must be taken ; he asked all who 
were willing to volunteer for the assault, and every man 
was ready, although they knew that all might lose their 
lives. The tower was captured, however, and danger from 
that quarter ended. 

" During the last days, when the Boxers pressed closer 
and closer, they uttered a loud cry — a wild chant which 
never ceased, terrible to hear: /Kill all the foreigners; 
kill all the foreigners.' 

'' At last the guns of the army coming to save them 
were heard, far off, outside the walls, and not a moment 
too soon, for the besieged could not have held out twenty- 
four hours longer, and not one of them would have been 
found alive. 

'' The walls of Peking were scaled, the gates blown up, 
the allied army marched into the city, the Boxers standing 



208 



their ground for a little while, then flying before them. 
The foreigners were saved, and with them the two thousand 
Chinese that they had cared for and protected in the midst 
of their own great peril. All the girls of the school that 
you visited were saved, except those who went back to 
their homes w^here they thought they would be safe. One 
of these girls was taken and burned to death, because she 
would not deny that she was a Christian. 

'' You would not be able to find your way about Peking 
now, it is all so changed. The heaps of bricks and mortar 
and the fallen trees that choked the streets have been cleared 
away, but thousands of houses have been burned, — the 
whole Chinese city, in fact, and some of the beautiful 
towers over the gates are in ruins. The Empress Dowager 
fled with the court before the foreign army marched into the 
city, and the Emperor went with her. He would have 
prevented all the bloodshed and destruction if he could 
have done so ; but the Empress Dowager had taken the 
government into her own hands, and he was powerless. 

" It will be many a long day before the ruin in Peking is 
effaced or forgotten. Perhaps, in time, there will be a new 
Peking better than the old, in which all that was worth 
saving will remain, and the Chinese themselves will have 
become wiser and better for the lessons they have learned." 



NiAh 18 1903 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



III 

027 572 778 7 



